Consigliare, persuadere, agire durante la peste nera del 1348. Un caso di deliberazione collettiva

Abstract

This article proposes to address the problem of risk and the consequent decisive response by referring to the deliberative genre in the opening of the Decameron, inspired by Aristotle, and more specifically to Pampinea’s speech. The emergency situation caused by the plague means that, in a given context, it is the word as an instrument of understanding and coexistence and the reference to unwritten but human laws that suggest the formation of the brigade and the deliberation regarding the course of action. Pampinea’s words outline the argumentative mechanisms underlying the creation of the Decameron and the possibility in being of facing risk by following the path of honest living. The Decameron itself is a means to ensure salvation in a context of enormous ethical crisis and total and immense risk.