Boccaccio Decameron manuscript page, Ms. Hamilton 90

What it is

This is a scan of a manuscript page from the Hamilton 90 codex, held at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. The codex is one of the autograph copies of the Decameron, written by Giovanni Boccaccio around 1370. The page has a red decorated initial and a red heading at the top left, and dense brown handwriting in two columns. A red library stamp reading Biblioteca Reale Berolinensis appears near the bottom. The image is a scan, not the manuscript itself.

Why it matters

The Decameron is a collection of stories told by a group of young people who leave Florence to escape the plague. Its opening describes the Florentine plague of 1348, so it is one of the most useful written sources on the effects of the pandemic. Because the codex is in Boccaccio's own hand, it lets students look at the text as the author wrote it.

Look closer

• What do the colours, the decorated initial and the two-column layout tell you about how this book was made?
• How does an author who lived through the plague choose to describe it in the opening of a story collection?
• What can a scan show you about the manuscript, and what can it not show?