VII. Women’s hoaxes

The parodic desecration of religious practice and litanies, which lend themselves to allusive double entendres based on eroticism, is uncovered in the ghost’s oration, the fictitious apotropaic prayer with which monna Tessa succeeds in warning her lover Federico of the presence of her husband in the house, telling him to be off at once (1). Similarly, friar Rinaldo fains a purification rite with healing effects, so as to hide the true reason for his visit  to his mistress Agnese, and thus uses, with blasphemous irony, the religious powers conferred him by his position (3).

Set in Bologna, the story of Anichino and Beatrice is without doubt the tale with the most literary echoes in this decury (7). The two fall in love per audita, as in the best of courtly tradition, and the girl’s declaration is made during a chess game, in line with the model of the romance. The place they meet under a pinetree, which recalls Tristan’s story, which Boccaccio uses in this novella, would however seem to be used with a comical end in mind. Under the plant Anichino beats Egano, Beatrice’s husband, with a stick, and thanks to a crafty trick thought up by the women, manages to convince Egano that he is not his wife’s lover.

Decameron, VII, 2. Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, ms. 2561, c. 247v. Boccaccio visualizzato: narrare per parole e per immagini fra Medioevo e Rinascimento, a c. di V. Branca, Turin 1999, vol. III, p. 227.