Hengwrt Decameron

The Hengwrt Decameron is one of the earliest and most significant surviving manuscripts of Giovanni Boccaccio's famous 14th-century collection of tales, "The Decameron." It contains the complete text of the 100 stories told by young people sheltering from the Black Death.

The manuscript is currently housed in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. It is part of the famous Hengwrt collection, a massive library of ancient Welsh and historical manuscripts compiled by antiquarian Robert Vaughan in the 17th century.

While the exact date is debated among scholars, it is believed to have been copied very shortly after Boccaccio completed the original text in the 1350s. Because it was transcribed so close to the author's lifetime, it is considered a crucial authoritative source for the text.

It is highly valued by scholars because it preserves some of the earliest, most accurate versions of Boccaccio's Italian text, predating the printing press by over a century. It provides vital clues about how medieval manuscripts were produced, annotated, and circulated.