The Decameron  (1353), by Giovanni Boccaccio, is regarded as the 
greatest example of Italian Renaissance prose. It features a group of 
friends who, while hiding from an outbreak of the plague, tell each 
other stories. The tales are based on the Greek and Latin classics, 
folklore and contemporary Italian life. Geoffrey Chaucer used the 
structure of The Decameron  as a framework for The Canterbury  
Tales .