The Online Concordance to the Decameron

This thoroughgoing concordance is intended to provide scholars, teachers and students with a reliable and easily accessible lexical index of Boccaccio's masterpiece. Until now, this sort of inventory was available only in the edition compiled by Alfredo Barbina under the direction of Umberto Bosco (Concordanze del "Decameron", 2 vol., Firenze, Giunti, 1969). Since this work has for many years been out of print and is currently held by relatively few North American libraries, however, the editors of the Decameron Web decided to produce a new version, based on Branca's updated edition, for the benefit of readers around the world. In addition to its immediate availability, this concordance differs from Barbina's in a couple of other ways as well. We have chosen the KWIC format (key words in context) for display so that users may more easily find combinations that interest them, e.g. sí come, sí fatto and so on. All words are listed in alphabetical order rather than being grouped with infinitives or masculine singular forms. In this way, users can quickly locate specific verbs and adjectives by number and gender. Those interested in all forms of a specific verb or adjective should consult the lexicon (in PDF or ZIP format) where they may browse all the words that appear in the Decameron. Many of the unusual forms that may be missed, as well as variant spellings, have been cross-referenced for convenience. As a general rule, if an uncommon form does not appear at a reasonable distance from its relative, an indication will be provided. Note, however, that we have taken it for granted that readers of the Decameron are already familiar with frequent medieval spellings and complete verb conjugations. Some of the most frequent words have been eliminated. These include most subject pronouns, possessive adjectives, articles, prepositions, some selected adverbs such as non, object pronouns including ci and ne, and a small selection of very common conjunctions such as ma, e and o. When in doubt, the user should consult the lexicon. Note that names are not separated unless, as in the case of Can Grande, they may be mistaken for another word.

We have attempted to distinguish homographs as clearly as possible. Abbreviations commonly used include adj. (adjective), adv. (adverb), interj. (interjection), n. (noun), p.p. (past participle), pr. (pronoun), num. (number), v. (verb form), < (derives from) and cf. (confer or compare).

IMPORTANT: Because there are over 17,000 unique words in the Decameron, a comprehensive concordance such as this one is quite large. We have striven to make this index as easy to use and as user-friendly as possible. We suggest that our visitors take a look at the overview of its features before beginning their research. In order to make searches easier and downloads faster, we have cut the volume into forty smaller documents. Nevertheless, each document is roughly one hundred pages in length. Due to the configuration of Brown's server, some browsers display PDF documents of this size as blank pages and sometimes even crash. Should you encounter such problems, please consult the help page.
ENGLISH


ITALIANO

(M.P.)

 

Name or Range

PDF (size in K)

ZIP (size in K)

 

lexicon

347

200

 

ab-allora

361

276

allori-andata

384

299

andataci-avanti

386

297

avanza-battuto

379

293

bazzica-camino

369

285

camisci-ch'

290

225

che-cheggia

763

579

cheggio-cominci

487

373

comincia-convento

319

244

conventuale-croce

378

293

crocetta-dilettevoli

375

291

diletti-diterminato

364

279

diti-dovete

368

284

doveva-entri

401

314

entrivi-faentina

382

298

faenza-ferrara

376

293

ferri-frutto

354

273

fu-giucava

378

293

giudaica-impedito

365

282

impediva-lasciano

353

270

lasciar-mala

368

284

maladetta-messegli

360

279

messer-mostratore

369

285

mostrava-ognuna

371

288

ognuno-parola

361

280

parole-piacevano

365

283

piacevi-portatori

377

293

portatovi-proda

372

288

prodezza-quanta

373

288

quante-quindi

388

302

quindici-rifermati

344

262

rifinava-santi

337

257

santissima-sentire

358

276

sentirebbe-sola

377

293

solamente-stette

397

305

stettero-tornatosi

392

300

tornava-uomini

407

314

uomo-vergognava

401

311

vergogne-zuffa

407

316