This intrinsic similarity of thoughtful flexibility paired with faithful engagement, leading to diverging visual approaches, is also evident in the illustrated edition of Giovanni Bocaccio''s Decameron printed by Bartolomeo de'' Zanni in 1504. This is the third printing to use these woodblocks, which initially appeared in the first fully illustrated edition of the text, a Venetian production of 1492 by Giovanni and Gregorio de'' Gregori. According to Rhiannon Daniels'' study, which ends in 1520 and includes manuscripts and printed editions of Boccaccio''s works, these same woodblocks are used exclusively through the cutoff date of her inquiry, apart from Gregorio de'' Gregori''s 1516 edition. By the 1542 edition, printed by Gabriele Giolito de'' Ferrari in Venice, several lines of visual genealogy had emerged. A categorizing study of the images in the 1504 edition, a total of 107, yields yet another unique arrangement of visual narrative approaches, again tailored to the specific literary work. While continuous narrative is the most frequent visual approach in the Commedia, constituting roughly sixty-four percent of the early printed illustrated editions, it is the least frequent of the three general categories in the illustrations of the Decameron. In the 1504 edition, at least, only around sixteen percent of the images contain continuous narrative. Monoscenes are slightly more common are monoscenes, at roughly twenty percent of the woodcuts, close to the ca.

twenty-one percent among the Commedia editions. The vast majority of the illustrations in the Decameron edition of 1504, though, are polyscenes, constituting ca. sixty-four percent of the illustrations. Considering the narrative structure of the Decameron, including the nature of the tales, the frequency of polyscenes is not entirely surprising. In Boccaccio''s text we have 100 stories, all contained within the frame story of ten young men and women who travel to the countryside of Fiesole where they tell ten days'' worth of tales, one per person on each day, while the plague is in its full and tragic force. The tales they tell vary in their structures, but the narrative time is rarely concise. In the Commedia, most cantos, as the unit used to inform the content of most illustrations, are far more temporally contained. Apart from stories within the story, when sinners and saints tell of their earthly lives (and in early printed editions, only saints'' tales are treated, occasionally, with visual representation), a select few events transpire in a single canto.

This structure lends itself to a higher frequency of continuous narrative, as it is often possible to encapsulate many if not all of the key moments in a given canto through a carefully chosen repetition of characters. In the Decameron, however, most tales involve more scenes, and thus illustrators of this text more frequently confront the issue of elapsed time. To encapsule the contents of any given tale as fully as possible, polyscenes become more frequently necessary. A few examples from the Decameron illustrations demonstrate why polyscenes were the most frequent choice, and when in this text continuous narrative and monoscenes were apt approaches. The image accompanying the seventh story of the eighth day conveys the usefulness of the polyscenic mode in illustrating the Decameron. On the eighth day the tales concern tricks played by women on men or by men on women. Told by Pampinea, the seventh story concerns a scholar named Rinieri who pursued a widowed lady, Elena. The lady, believing that by attracting attention she would become more desirable, led the scholar on for some time until one day, spurred on by the jealously of her actual companion, she tricked him into waiting for her until dawn in the cold and snow under the pretense that he would soon be invited inside.

Realizing he had been tricked, he awaited an opportunity to return the favor. It came when Elena''s companion lost interest in her, at which point her maidservant asked the scholar if he had a magical cure to reinvigorate their love. Feigning knowledge and a willingness to help, Rinieri presented an elaborate scheme by which Elena could use magic to restore her relationship. Believing the scholar''s claims, she found herself naked on the top of a tower for a full night and the following day, where she remained under the sun''s scorching heat. With numerous scenes and a fairly long passage of time, the woodcut selects the two key moments, thus visualizing the story''s theme of vendetta. On the left we see the scene of Rinieri waiting outside in the dead of winter while Elena and her companion secretly observe him; on the right, we see the moment when he executes his revenge, speaking to her as she is trapped naked on the top of a tower. The crux of some tales in the Decameron may be visually conveyed without including as many distinct scenes, focusing instead on a specific moment. Another story from the eighth day--the third, told by Elissa--features the artists and practical jokers, Bruno and Buffalmacco, who trick Calandrino into carrying a major haul of stones in his shirt to his home, believing them to be heliotropes bestowing powers of invisibility upon one who holds them.

He was convinced that no one could see him, but when he reached his home, his wife saw and spoke to him from the top of the steps. He proceeded to abuse her, thinking that "being a woman she can cause everything to lose its power." Though this story involves multiple scenes, including a backstory detailing the deceptive trick that led Calandrino to seek out heliotropes, the illustration selects the result of the deceptions and features it through a continuous rendering. On the left, Calandrino is journeying home with a shirt full of rocks, unknowingly trailed by Bruno and Buffalmacco, and on the right, upon his arrival, he attacks his wife. Other tales in the Decameron lend themselves to monoscenic approaches, for example, when emphasis on a single peak moment of action seems most apt. This is so in the illustration of the seventh tale of the fourth day, which pinpoints the moment that Simona follows Pasquino in death. In other cases, monoscenes are chosen for stories that revolve more centrally around words than events. This is prevalent in the tales of the sixth day, all of which feature the witty remarks of a character.

For example, the fifth story of the day, told by Filostrato, features Giotto and Forese da Rabatta, the former being the great painter, the latter a celebrated jurist--and both rather unattractive individuals. Travelling beside one another by horse en route home to Florence, they are caught in a rainstorm and forced to change into humble capes and hats that they borrow from a peasant. Continuing their journey in their new garb, it dawns on Forese that if a stranger met Giotto in his current condition, it would be hard to believe he is the best painter in the world. Upon hearing this reflection, Giotto retorts to the jurist: "Sir, I think he would believe it if, after looking you over, he were to think you knew your ABCs." The illustration encapsulates the key details framing their exchange of words by monoscenically rendering the two men emerging from the peasant''s home who lent them their attire. Even within the Decameron varieties emerge: while only twenty percent of all illustrations are monoscenes in the 1504 edition, in the sixth day, centered as it is on words, exactly half of them are monoscenic narratives. (excerpted from conclusion).