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Terry Jones introduces five more tasty Renaissance treats from The Decameron, starring Tim McInnerny, Neil Pearson, Louise Brealey, Paul Ritter and Tameka Empson.

The one hundred stories which make up Giovanni Boccaccio's humane and comic masterpiece, come from all over the world. They are vividly reset by Boccaccio among the flourishing merchant classes in the cities of Renaissance Italy. But their witty, satirical, bawdy voice sounds utterly modern, and their subjects - love, fate, sex, religion, morality - are universal.

Radio 3 is retelling ten of these choice Florentine Fancies, adapted by Robin Brooks. Tonight's selection box of five tales has been broadcast every evening this week in the Essay. Five more dainties can also be heard in last week's Drama on 3.

Boccaccio was born to a Florentine banking family in 1313. After an unsuccessful start in law, he turned to his true love: poetry. A humanist and a friend of Petrarch, Boccaccio's Latin poetry was famous across Europe, and provided the sources for his near-contemporary Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, and The Knight's Tale. But his real innovation was the vibrant, vernacular prose in which he wrote The Decameron. Beautifully realised in the teeming voices of merchants and prostitutes, knights and nuns, shopkeepers and conmen, these stories have become a bedrock of our storytelling tradition, mined ever since by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Moliere, Lope de Vega, Christine de Pizan, Swift, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, Edgar Allan Poe, Caryl Churchill and many more.

The music for the series is arranged and performed by Robert Hollingworth, Director of I Fagiolini, and the lutenist Paula Chateauneuf, with translations by Silvia Reseghetti. The script consultant is Guyda Armstrong.

THE SWEETEST YOUNG MAN IN PERUGIA

A young bride can't work out why her marriage seems flat. Until she and her husband both meet the sweetest young man in Perugia.

Pietro ..... Tim McInnerny
Madam ..... Hannah Genesius
Pandara ..... Jane Slavin
Masetto ..... Monty d'Inverno
Ercolano ..... David Acton

THE WAGER

When Bernabo makes a bet on his wife's chastity, and his friend sets out to prove him wrong, neither man imagines the matter will change their lives forever.

Musciatto ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Ambrogiuolo ..... Geoffrey Streatfeild
Bernabo ..... Paul Ritter
Zinevra ..... Louise Brealey
Sultan ..... Jude Akuwudike
Captain ..... Shaun Mason

A JOB FOR THE BOYS

Masetto's having a quiet drink, when the chance of a new job comes his way.

Masetto ..... Neil Pearson
Sister Donna ..... Tameka Empson
Sister Lisa ..... Rhiannon Neads
Hildegard ..... Jane Slavin
Nuto ..... Sam Dale
Steward ..... Michael Bertenshaw

LOVES LIES SLEEPING

In the middle of the night, Beppo's wife wakes him up to tell him a story. But his night is only just beginning.

Silvestra ..... Laura Molyneux
Beppo ..... Rudi Dharmalingam
Giovanni ..... Joseph Drake
Rinaldo ..... David Acton
Mother ..... Jane Slavin

A QUIET NIGHT IN NAPLES

Country boy Andreuccio comes to Naples to buy a horse. If only life in Naples were so straightforward.

Andreuccio ..... Gunnar Cauthery
Filomena ..... Roslyn Hill
Scarabone ..... Shaun Mason
Neighbour ..... David Acton
Ludo ..... Paul Heath
Bruno ..... Ian Conningham
Sister Lisa ..... Elaine Claxton
Sister Donna ..... Hannah Genesius

Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.

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