This is the first monograph to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the Decameron's response to classical and medieval didactic traditions. Olivia Holmes unearths the rich variety of Boccaccio's sources, ranging across Aesopic fables, narrative collections of Islamicate origin, sermon-stories and saints' lives, and compilations of historical anecdotes. Examining the Decameron's sceptical and sexually permissive contents in relation to medieval notions of narrative exemplarity, the study also considers how they intersect with current critical assertions of fiction's power to develop empathy and emotional intelligence. Holmes argues that Boccaccio provides readers with the opportunity to exercise both what the ancients called 'Ethics,' and our contemporaries call 'Theory of Mind.' This account of a vast tradition of tale collections and its provocative analysis of their workings will appeal to scholars of Italian literature and medieval studies, as well as to readers interested in evolutionary understandings of storytelling.

Winner, 2025 Leva la testa e fa che t'assicuri, Lions Club International and the Vatican

‘Written in a lucid and eloquent style, the study is a product of a career of profound thinking about both the vast literary context of Boccaccio’s vernacular masterpiece and the novellas themselves. … Holmes’s book is a pathbreaking and major contribution to Boccaccio studies.’

Brenda Deen Schildgen Source: Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

‘The book’s main strengths lie in El-Hibri’s facility with the narrative material and the thematic topics he chooses to address. That he has spent a career teaching and researching Abbasid history and historiography is evident, and there are numerous thought-provoking observations and asides that reflect this knowledge and experience.’

Andrew Marsham Source: Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

‘Boccaccio and Exemplary Literature a very welcome addition to the study of Boccaccio and popular literature of his times. It is a rich and well-informed book that brings to the forefront the (still necessary) field of exemplary literature and its many different expressions.’

Mario Sassi Source: Heliotropia

‘[A] skilful and well-researched interpretation of the Decameron, which contributes to bringing the academic community even closer to the cultural world known by its author, transformed and problematised in his works.’

Berenice Daniele Source: Italian Studies