The earliest source of this story is found in chapter twenty-three of Saint Sulpicius Severus's biography of Saint Martin of Tours. This first tale ridicules the then-current practice of the Roman Catholic Church of canonization by the people. The townspeople who hear the sermon believe that he was a holy man and revere him as a saint long after Ciapelletto dies. He is completely believed by the friar, who preaches a sermon on his life after he passes away. Ciappelletto proceeds to tell the friar lies about his life that make him seem very pure, while pretending to cringe over venial sins. The two Florentine brothers who were housing him during his stay bring a friar from a nearby convent to hear his confession and give him his last rites.

Once there, he soon falls terminally ill. Ser Cepparello, commonly known as Ciapelletto, a notoriously wicked man, travels on business to Burgundy, a region he is unknown in, as a favor to Musciatto Franzesi. Although there is no assigned theme of the tales this first day, six deal with one person censuring another and four are satires of the Catholic Church. Under the rule of Pampinea, the first day of story-telling is open topic. The stories are told in the garden of the first villa that the company stays at, which is located a few miles outside the city. Each agrees to tell one story each day for ten days.

The basilica of Santa Maria Novella, with a Renaissance façade that was completed about 100 years after The Decameron was writtenīefore beginning the story-telling sessions, the ten young Florentines, seven women and three men, referred to as the Brigata, gather at the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella and together decide to escape the Black Death by leaving the city to stay in a villa in the countryside for the next two weeks.

Giovanni boccaccio dekameron