The Decameron subtitled Prince Galehaut, is a compilation of novellas by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). The book structured as a frame story including 100 tales told by a combination of seven young women and three young men lodging in a secluded villa just outside Florence to flee the Black Death, which was tormenting the city. Boccaccio probably imagined the Decameron after the epidemic of 1348 and finished it by 1353. The various stories of love in The Decameron scale from the erotic to the tragic. Stories of wit, practical jokes, and life experiences contribute to the mosaic. In addition to its quality and literary value and widespread influence, it provides a document of life at the time. It is written in the colloquial of the Florentine language; it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose. In Italy during the period of the Black Death, a group of seven young women and three young men escape from plague-ridden Florence to an abandoned villa in the country of Fiesole for two weeks. To spend the evenings, every member of the party tells a story each night, besides for one day per week for duties, and the holidays during which they do no work at all, producing ten nights of storytelling over the period of two weeks. Therefore, by the end of the fortnight, they have told 100 stories. Each of the ten actors is charged as King or Queen of the company for each one of the ten days in turn. This obligation stretches to choosing the subject of the stories for that day, and all but two days have themes assigned: examples of the power of fortune; instances of the power of human determination; love tales that end tragically; love stories that end happily. Smart replies that save the lecturer; tricks that women play on men; lies that people play on each other in general; precedents of virtue. Only Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, has the right to describe a story on any topic he wishes, due to his wit. Many authors have argued that Dioneo expresses the views of Boccaccio himself. Each day also includes a short preface and conclusion to continue the frame of the tales by explaining other daily activities besides story-telling. These frame story interludes frequently incorporate transcriptions of Italian folk songs. The interplays among stories in a day, or across days, as Boccaccio twists variations and reversals of previous material, form a combination and not just a collection of tales. The basic structures of the stories including ridiculing the lust and greed of the clergy; strains in Italian society between the wealthy commercial class and noble families; the perils and adventures of traveling merchants.