One of The Heptameron’s most prominent themes is the importance of speaking the truth and how language itself interferes with the ability to do so. In the Prologue, Oisille sets the rule that every tale they tell should be truthful, in part to complement the spiritual truths they study in the Scripture each morning. But this is a Humanist pursuit at its heart, with the group engaging in a prolonged debate after each story, seeking to get at the core of each moral lesson and the essence of human behavior.

Marguerite de Navarre’s project, their model, excludes those who might dabble in rhetoric—men of letters—known for bending the truth with words, as rhetoric was felt to be incompatible with historical truth. As such, individual stories explore the problems of expression, rhetoric, and distortion, disguised meanings, and even inadequate translations, and how poor communication can foster immorality. A question persists: How can one distinguish true from specious language?

Still rooted in the orality of the spoken and performed story, The Heptameron essentially translates stories from various sources, be it Scripture, Old French, Latin, Italian, Spanish, or Greek. Often a storyteller will complain that their translation does the original no justice, or a misunderstanding within a tale will be a crucial factor in the denouement.