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Usually attributed to Marguerite de Navarre, the brilliant sister of Francis I of France, The Heptameron is located firmly in the tradition of Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The stories are related by five men and five women for their amusement and edification after the they have taken refuge from a series of disaster sin a Pyrenbbey Their subjects range from the bawdy to the romantic, from anti-clerical humour to serious reflections on spiritual matters. Together, they offer a surprisingly immediate picture of life in sophisticated sixteenth-century Franc; Paul Chilton's comprehensive Introduction complements his excellent translation.
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