Decamerone

DEAREST ladies, it is fitting that everything done by man should begin with the marvelous and holy name of Him who was the Creator of all things; therefore, since I am to be the first to begin our storytelling, I intend to start with one of His marvelous deeds, so that when we have heard about it, our faith in Him will remain as firm as ever and His name be ever praised by us. Every time I stop to consider your natural inclination to pity, most gracious ladies, I recognize that you will find the opening of this present work abhorrent and distressing; for so is the painful recapitulation of the recent deadly plague, which occasioned hardship and grief to everyone who witnessed it or had some experience of it, and which marks the introduction of my work. Most gracious ladies, when I think to myself how very pitiful you all are by nature, I have to recognise that you will find this present work has a painful and unpleasant beginning, as the sad memory of the deaths in the recent plague, which my book carries at its forefront, is universally horrible to all who saw it or otherwise knew of it. A seemly thing it is, dearest ladies, that whatever we do, it be begun in the holy and awful name of Him who was the maker of all. MOST gracious ladies, knowing that you are all by nature pitiful, I know that in your judgment this work will seem to have a painful and sad origin.