The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1

This volume brings listeners into a sprawling anthology that gathered the most popular Italian tales for Elizabethan England. Compiled by the 16th‑century editor William Painter, it offers the first English translations of stories from Boccaccio’s Decameron, the Heptameron, and the works of Bandello, Cinthio and Straparola. The careful editing and scholarly notes included in this edition reveal how the book was assembled from a handful of rare 16th‑century copies, preserving the original spelling quirks and marginal comments. As a result, the listener hears the raw, vibrant storytelling that once filled the courts and playhouses of the period.

Beyond its literary merit, the collection served as a well‑spring for playwrights such as Shakespeare, Marlowe and Ben Jonson, who mined its plots for drama and comedy. Each story brims with intrigue, romance, and moral twists that echo the restless energy of an age discovering new worlds and ideas. The narration captures the excitement of a society eager to translate foreign wonders into its own voice, making the work a crucial link between Renaissance Italy and Elizabethan England.