Transcriber's Notes:
The original text does not observe the normal convention of placing quotation marks at the beginnings of paragraphs within a multiple-paragraph quotation. This idiosyncrasy has been preserved in this e-text.
Archaic spellings have been preserved, but obvious printer errors have been corrected.
In the untranslated Italian passage in [Day 3, Story 10], the original is missing the accents, which have been added using an Italian edition of Decameron (Milan: Mursia, 1977) as a guide.
This e-text contains some Greek and Arabic words, which may not display correctly in all browsers. Hover the mouse over the word to see a pop-up transliteration, e.g., βιβλος.
John Payne's translation of The Decameron was originally published in a private printing for The Villon Society, London, 1886. The American edition from which this e-text was prepared is undated.