How The Canterbury Tales drew on The Decameron
A documented line of influence: Geoffrey Chaucer demonstrably engaged Giovanni Boccaccio’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio · c. 1351
MedievalThe influenced
The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer · c. 1400
MedievalRelevance
8/10
On The Canterbury Tales’s page
- The pilgrims-swapping-tales structure isn't Chaucer's invention — scholars trace it straight to Boccaccio's Decameron
- About a quarter of the Canterbury tales have Decameron counterparts, and the case that Chaucer actually read it is strong
- Read Boccaccio first and you see the blueprint: a frame full of travelers, each with a story, that Chaucer carried north and made English
On The Decameron’s page
- Boccaccio built the machine Chaucer would borrow: a company of people, thrown together, taking turns telling stories
- That frame — and roughly a quarter of Chaucer's individual tales — turns up again in The Canterbury Tales a half-century later
- The Decameron is the Italian original behind the most famous storytelling-contest in English