Friday

Friday is a Christian day of fasting and remembrance of the Passion, and in the Decameron it also shapes the storytelling company’s routine. Its religious meaning brings a pause in the tales, while a comic episode turns the day’s restrictions into a measure of marital incompatibility.

Liturgical Meaning

Neifile describes Friday as a day worthy of reverence because Christ suffered on it for humanity’s salvation. The fast associated with the day gives it a practical as well as devotional character: it is one of the days when the customary food is restricted. In the company’s schedule, prayer rather than storytelling is judged the fitting activity for Friday.

The following Saturday has its own observances. Neifile notes the custom of washing the hair after the week’s labors and the practice among many women of fasting and resting in honor of the Virgin and in preparation for Sunday. Friday and Saturday therefore form a paired interruption, but Neifile gives each day a distinct rationale: remembrance of the Passion on Friday, and customary cleansing, rest, and devotion on Saturday.

A Pause in the Storytelling Routine

As the company’s queen, Neifile proposes that no stories be told on either day. The decision follows the group’s established routine but makes room for religious observance within it. The company approves her arrangement, and storytelling is deferred until Sunday, after the group has moved elsewhere following four days at its current lodging.

The pause also sets up a change in the tales’ subject. Neifile proposes that the next day’s stories concern people who, through diligence, obtain something greatly desired or recover a lost possession, while preserving Dioneo’s privilege. Friday thus marks more than a break in the schedule: it stands between one day of storytelling and the next day’s announced theme.

Friday in a Comic Contrast

In the story of Messer Ricciardo di Chinzica and Bartolomea, Friday appears not as a day of rest but as one item in the calendar of observances that Ricciardo’s wife mocks. After being taken by Paganino da Mare, Bartolomea tells her husband that Friday, Saturday, vigils, Ember Days, and Lent have not interrupted her life with Paganino. The list turns religiously prescribed abstinence into a pointed contrast with the sexual attention she says she lacked in her marriage.

The episode does not erase Friday’s devotional significance; it uses the day’s recognized restrictions to sharpen the difference between two relationships. For Bartolomea, the calendar represents Ricciardo’s repeated preference for observance over satisfying his young wife. Her choice to remain with Paganino makes Friday part of a broader comic argument about the gap between public piety and private desire.