Земният рай и чумната пандемия в „Декамерон“ на Джовани Бокачо
The Paradise on Earth and the Pest Pandemic in Decameron by G. Boccaccio

Summary/Abstract: The article is written on the occasion of the state of emergency and the need for social isolation imposed in Bulgaria in relation to the pandemic caused by the covid-19 virus. The author asks the question: which were the places for meetings in the Italian towns during the 14th century? The actual situation and our newly acquired contemporary experience are a stimulus to approach the everyday life of certain communities before the age of Modernity. The author interprets Decameron as an evidence for social values, existing or in a process of formation in the middle of the 14th century in an Italian town-republic. He tries to establish relations between the text of Decameron and other evidences from that time in order to learn more about the worldview of the Florence inhabitants in their social diversity. He studies the contrast between the depictions of the plague pandemic and the earthly paradise, offering a detailed analysis of the background and the behaviour of the ten narrators in the earthly paradise. He investigates the propinquity between book IV of Filocolo and the framework of Decameron. Boccaccio depicts the plague in Florence as a social anarchy and a moral decline. The earthly paradise in Decameron is a carefree state of youth, a harmony with nature – with the environment rationally organised by people. The earthly paradise supposes establishing good reason in the relations between people; equality between the community members who through discussion can reach a decision satisfying all of them; the shared communication also characterizes the earthly paradise. But the earthly paradise likewise reproduces the hierarchy of real sociality.

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