Distortions of space and problems of interpretation in Decameron II.5

This essay examines images of distorted, confused, managed, and created space which run throughout the prologue and the tales of the Decameron, in particular the story of Andreuccio da Perugia (2.5). Observing how, with the freedom that comes from living in depopulated spaces, Boccaccio's narrators tell stories that testify to the simultaneous pleasure and anxiety such freedom brings, I argue that for Boccaccio the disruption of sacred space results in a boundless and potentially terrifying freedom to interpret space as one wishes.