La novella di Andreuccio da Perugia

Un documento di storia urbana e sociale, una parabola

Abstract

The paper is divided into two parts. The first presents a short historical examination of the hygienic conditions of urban spaces in the Middle Ages of the West, especially in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. This provides a helpful introduction to the second section of the paper which is dedicated to the analysis and exegesis of the short story of Andreuccio from Perugia in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (Second Day, Novel V); an exegesis that sees the story (only on the surface a conte à rire) as a kind of parable of rebirth that can be defined as “spiritual”, albeit presented in a comic manner.