Paratexts and Their Functions in Seventeenth-Century English "Decamerons"

This article examines the first English translation of Boccaccio's Decameron (London: Jaggard, 1620), and its subsequent seventeenth-century editions. Meaning is shown to be constructed not only within the translated text itself, but also by the paratexts which surround it: the material features of the book (such as title-pages, illustrations, rubrics, and dedications) are shown to shape and authorize the foreign text for its English readerships. The route of transmission of the text from Italy to England via France is also signalled through both visual and textual elements, which reveal the interpretative frameworks of various readerships.