Hommage to Boccaccio

Plantation of basil plants in and around an earthen pot, in the garden of the Villa Medici in Rome, during the exhibition La ville / le jardin / la mémoire, curators : Laurence Bossé, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Giornata Quarta Novella Quinta :
I fratelli dell’Isabetta uccidon l’amante di lei : egli l’apparisce in sogno, e mostrale ove sia sotterrato. Elle occultamente dissotterra la testa e mettela in un testo di basilico ; e quivi su piagnendo ogni di per una grande ora, i fratelli gliele tolgono, et ella se ne muor di dolore poco appresso.

Fourth Day Fifth Tale :
Lisabetta’s brothers slay her lover: he appears to her in a dream, and shows her where he is buried: she privily disinters the head, and sets it in a pot of basil, whereon she daily weeps a great while. The pot being taken from her by her brothers, she dies not long after.

Illustration of the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio in the Italian edition of 1492, the photos showing the basil plants at the end of June and end of August 2000.