Which Edition

Giovanni Boccaccio

The Decameron

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Cover of The Decameron, translated by Wayne A. Rebhorn
Best for most

Wayne A. Rebhorn · 2013

Wayne Rebhorn's 2013 translation won a major prize and is the one I'd start with — lively, contemporary American English that still keeps Boccaccio's medieval rhetorical flavor. The complete hundred tales. This is where I'd start.

Cover of The Decameron, translated by G. H. McWilliam
Most scholarly

G. H. McWilliam · 1972

G. H. McWilliam's Penguin translation is the scholarly standard — a famously rich introduction and full notes on Boccaccio's world. Complete, and the choice if you want the apparatus.

Cover of The Decameron, translated by Musa & Bondanella
Most literal

Musa & Bondanella · 1982

Musa and Bondanella keep Boccaccio's long Latinate sentences intact where others chop them into modern bites — the more 'hardcore,' literary-faithful approach. For readers who want the period texture.

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