A review by ikecrick
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

5.0

“Tomorrow, as you know, a fortnight will have elapsed since the day we departed from Florence to preserve our health and our lives, and escape from the sadness, the suffering and the anguish continuously to be found in our city since this plague first descended upon it. These aims we have achieved, in my judgment, without any loss of decorum. For as far as I have been able to observe, albeit the tales related here have been amusing, perhaps of a sort to stimulate carnal desire... neither in word nor deed nor in any other respect have I known either you or ourselves to be worthy of censure. On the contrary, from what I have seen and heard, it seems to me that our proceedings have been marked by a constant sense of propriety, an unfailing spirit of harmony, and a continual feeling of brotherly and sisterly amity. All of which pleases me greatly, as it surely resounds to our communal honour and credit.”

Te lucis ante términum,
rerum Creàtor, póscimus,
ut sólita cleméntia
sis praesul ad custódiam.

Procul recédant sómnia
et nóctium phantásmata;
hostémque nostrum cómprime,
ne polluántur córpora.

Praesta, Pater omnípotens,
per lesum Christum Dóminum,
qui tecum in perpétuum
regnat cum Sancto Spíritu. Amen.