Giraldi Cinthio was a sixteenth century writer whose work was not translated into English until 1753. One of his stories, called a novel though it is actually a collection of stories, was "Disdemona of Venice and the Moorish Captain," from the author's Gli Hecatommithi (the story is from Decade 3, Story 7), served as the model for William shakespeare's Othello. The story and the play both center on Othello, the moor who is also a brave soldier and leader, and his wife, Disdemona in the original, Desdemona in the play. In both instances, a trusted underling uses his wiles to create jealousy in the moor and to cause him to destroy his wife and himself. There are differences between the villains in the two pieces, the Ensign in Cinthio, and Iago in Shakespeare.
The first difference one notes in comparing the Italian story and the English play is that in the story, only Disdemona and Othello are named, while the other characters are referred to by their titles or roles in life. Hence, the villain is known only as the Ensign. There are significant differences between the Italian narrative and Shakespeare's version. The courtship and marriage of Othello and Disdemona in Cinthio occurs over a period of time. The voyage to Cyprus takes place on a calm sea in Cinthio rather than in the storm detailed by Shakespeare, the later referred to by Othello when he is reunited with Desdemona:
It gives me wonder great as my content
To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!
If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus high, and duck again as low
As hell's from heaven! (II.i.218-224).
Neely states that Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi probably provided Shakespeare with its theme and organizing principle as well as with its plot:
The battle of the sexes in marriage is its central motif and dominates...