DECAMERON - FAIRYTALES - EROTIC ART Illustration by Louis Chalon for the J M. Rigg translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, 1903. Fourth Day: Fourth Story. The daughter of the King of Tunis receiving presents from the emissary of Gerbino, who is in love with her. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), probably born in Certaldo, in Val d'Elsa. His Decameron is a collection of one hundred stories, told by young men and women who were avoiding Florence during the Plague of 1348. Many of the tales are erotic in nature, and many were adopted by Boccaccio, rather than being original.