The Decameron (The 100 Greatest Books of All Time)

xxxi, 738 pp. Original black full leather, gilt titles and decorations, all edges gilt, silk moire endpapers, ribbon marker bound in. Translated into English by G.H. McWilliam. Illustrations by Murray Tinkelman. Boccaccio's 14th century collection of 100 stories, controversial at the time for its inclusion of erotic themes, and important today for the details it provides about life in Italy at the time.