Saint Ciappelletto

Terry Jones introduces the first of ten tasty Renaissance tales.

The 100 stories which make up Giovanni Boccaccio’s humane and comic masterpiece come from all over the world.

This Renaissance work is considered a landmark in the history of literature.

The stories are vividly reset by Boccaccio among the flourishing merchant classes in the cities of 14th-century Italy.

But their witty, satirical, bawdy voice sounds utterly modern, and their subjects - love, fate, sex, religion, morality - are universal.

“Luckily, God listens to the sincerity of our prayers, and takes no account of their ignorance…”

All is not what it seems, when a 14th-century Tony Soprano makes his deathbed confession.

Adapted in ten parts by Robin Brooks

Ciappelletto ..... Colin McFarlane
Musciatto ..... Sam Dale
Holy Friar ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Federico ..... Monty d’Inverno
Anselmo ..... Paul Heath
Doctor ..... Ian Conningham

Music arranged and performed by Robert Hollingworth and Paula Chateauneuf.

Lyric translations by Silvia Reseghetti.

Script Consultant: Guyda Armstrong

Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in December 2014.