VI. Aristocratic brigades

The micro society presented within the framework of the Decameron is a social model that is mentioned several times over in the tales of the sixth day. In this decury of novellas, rendered cohesive due to the setting (Florence and its surroundings) and the time (the first decades of the XIV century), the aristocratic group of men and women is evoked by madonna Oretta’s (1) group of friends, as it is by the group of young Florentines for whom Michele Scalza demonstrates, with a motto, that the House of the Baronci is the most noble there is (6); the aristocratic group lastly recognises itself in the brigade led by Betto Brunelleschi, who sets about the task of embarrassing Guido Cavalcanti, but is blocked with a cryptic comment made by the intellectual, capable of saying “onestamente villania” or honestly villainous (9).

The confrontation between characters belonging to a different social class is at the centre of Cisti’s (2) and Chichibio’s (4) novellas. The antagonist to be beaten is for the baker messer Geri Spina, avid for Cisti’s good wine, whilst for the cook Chichibio it is a matter of explaining to Corrado Gianfigliazzi how the leg of a crane has disappeared from the serving dish. In no way intimidated by the gap in social condition, and therefore in no way deferent toward their noble counterpart, both the baker and the cook ably defend themselves with the weapons of words and thanks to their verbal skills are dispensed of all accusations, earning the respect of their adversaries.

Decameron, VI, 4. Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, ms. 2561, c. 229v. Boccaccio visualizzato: narrare per parole e per immagini fra Medioevo e Rinascimento, a c. di V. Branca, Turin 1999, vol. III, p. 227.