Decameron 2020: Survival through Stories artwork

3. Nephilia introduces us to an unusual perspective on faith (Day 1, Story 2)

Decameron 2020: Survival through Stories

English - July 22, 2020 17:00 - 12 minutes - 8.81 MB
Arts literature boccaccio renaissance italian plague pandemic storytelling humanities educational medieval Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed


In the second story of the first day, Nephilia tells the tale of a virtuous man who is begged to convert from the Jewish faith to the Christian religion. After visiting the corrupt clergy of Rome, he makes a surprising decision. Building off of the previous episode, Neiphila concentrates on the themes of virtue, faith, and organized religion. 

A heads up and a bit of a warning: the premise of Boccaccio's story is that everyone knows that that Jews need saving by Christians. That is obviously an anti-Semitic premise. We think that Nephilia's use of irony to reveal Christian hypocrisy balances out the story, and maybe even redeems it...but maybe not. 

Podcast intro: Karen Alvarado. Editing and Sound Design by Brady Marchand. Copy editing by Bob Jones, Ania Upstill, Karen Alvarado, and J.M. Meyer. Project manager: Celine Dirkes. Graphic design: Hannah Lang.

Music and SFX:

http://hebb.mit.edu/FreeMusic/jsbach_bwv996_01

http://hebb.mit.edu/FreeMusic/jsbach_bwv996_02

http://hebb.mit.edu/FreeMusic/jsbach_bwv996_03

http://hebb.mit.edu/FreeMusic/jsbach_bwv996_04

http://hebb.mit.edu/FreeMusic/jsbach_bwv996_05

http://hebb.mit.edu/FreeMusic/jsbach_bwv996_06

http://aux.incompetech.com/royalty-free/Brandenburg%20No4-1%20BWV1049.mp3