Brother Cipolla
Intro
- Storyteller: Dioneo
- For once, Dioneo will tell a story in keeping with the theme du jour.
- And he'll take his time about it, since it's only noon and they're already through nine stories.
Story
- This one's set in Certaldo, the possible city of Boccaccio's birth and the place where he lived after he retired.
- Because of its wealth, it was a popular place for a friar called Cipolla ("Onion" in Italian) to go begging.
- And look out—Friar Cipolla has red hair. (Remember the red-headed character in V.10?)
- He's also illiterate, popular and a good speaker.
- Cipolla, like many friars of his time, would make a lot of money by preaching fiery sermons outside of churches, and showing relics—usually body parts of the saints or pieces of sacred items—that were supposed to have healing powers.
- In this particular instance, Cipolla promises to show the people of the parish a feather from the Angel Gabriel that was left behind in Mary's room after the Annunciation.
- Giovanni and Biagio, citizens of Certaldo, listen to Cipolla's speech and decide to expose him as a fraud. Feathers, seriously?
- They break into Cipolla's room and steal the feather he plans to show in his next sermon.
- Cipolla had a servant called "Guccio Porco" or "Guccio the Pig." He's a slob, but he keeps Cipolla supplied with gossip.
- The friar tells Guccio to keep an eye on his room, but Guccio's busy trying to hook up with an ugly kitchen maid.
- So Giovanni and Biagio have an easy time of stealing the feather and replacing it with three lumps of coal.
- When the peasants of the town gather to see Gabriel's feather, Cipolla sees dollar signs. He sends Guccio back to get his relics so that they can begin and then collect money.
- Cipolla preaches dramatically and then opens the box to reveal the angel feather.
- Of course, he finds the lumps of coal and has to do some quick thinking.
- But Cipolla's in his element. He regales them with a nonsense story about his travels through fictitious lands.
- The point of telling such a lengthy story is to explain why he has coals rather than an angel's feather.
- Cipolla says that when he reached the Holy Land, the Patriarch gave him many relics. One of them was the feather. But he also has the coals over which St. Lawrence was roasted.
- Since the Patriarch placed each of them in identical containers, Cipolla sometimes confuses them, as he's done today.
- But God be praised! What a great mistake to make! The feast day of St. Lawrence is coming up, so how much cooler is it that Cipolla happened to bring the coal?
- He invites the faithful to step forward to be blessed (and give him some money). In return, they will "never be touched by fire without being burnt" for a whole year.
- Cipolla makes a fortune and dupes the whole town.