Il Decameron come galateo della parola e della vita

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the Decameron taking into account the relational and social dynamics of every human relationship. The work presents itself as a model of etiquette of speech, life, death and passions, because balance and respect for others, values that are hidden in all the stories, anticipate the sixteenth-century concepts of civilization and etiquette, both evolutions of the principle of courtesy. The relational dimensions are translated on the basis of an implicit and necessary social order, canceled by the plague, which must be maintained for there to be harmony; in this regard, Goffmanian sociology finds a coherent witness in the Decameron. Boccaccio’s anthropological choice - to entrust a possible ethical solution to the brigade - is the true distinctive feature of the equality represented by the Decameron.