“To the Arno”

“To the Arno” is Cisti the baker’s compact, indirect rebuke to a servant sent with an oversized flagon to fetch his fine wine. The reply makes the Arno River a destination for the unsuitable vessel rather than for the wine: a joke that corrects a social lapse without openly accusing Messer Geri Spina of discourtesy. Messer Geri understands, changes the vessel, and thereafter treats Cisti as a man of worth and a friend.

Setting and occasion

The exchange takes place after Messer Geri and several ambassadors have repeatedly enjoyed Cisti’s wine. Cisti serves them himself, washing four new beakers and pouring from a little pitcher; he also tells the servants to stand back and makes clear that they are not to taste it. The ambassadors praise the wine, and Messer Geri goes to drink with them there on nearly every morning of their stay.

When the ambassadors’ business is finished and they are about to depart, Messer Geri holds a grand banquet and invites Cisti. Cisti declines to attend. Messer Geri then sends a servant to bring a flask of Cisti’s wine so that each guest can have half a beaker with the first course. The servant takes a great flagon, the detail that gives Cisti’s reply its force: the question is not whether the wine is good, but whether this is an appropriate vessel and use for it.

The reply and its implication

Cisti tells the servant that Messer Geri did not send him to the baker. The servant insists that he did; Cisti repeats his denial. When the servant asks whom Messer Geri sent him to, Cisti answers, “To the Arno.” The literal destination turns the flagon into the joke’s target: it is so ill-suited to carrying this choice wine that it belongs at the river, not at Cisti’s door.

The retort works by implication rather than accusation. Cisti does not directly rebuke Messer Geri in front of the servant or the banquet guests. Instead, he makes the vessel itself expose the mismatch between the wine he has been serving in small pitchers and the great flagon sent for a crowd. The servant carries the answer back, and Messer Geri immediately grasps its meaning.

Recognition and consequence

On seeing the great flagon, Messer Geri acknowledges that Cisti is right, sharply reproves the servant, and sends him back with a suitable flask. Cisti then fills it cheerfully. The changed vessel demonstrates that the rebuke has been heard: the wine is to be offered in a way that respects the distinction Cisti has already established through his careful service.

That day, Cisti also has a small cask of the same wine filled and quietly delivered to Messer Geri’s house. He explains that the morning’s great flagon had not frightened him; he had only wanted to remind Messer Geri of what the little pitchers had shown him over the preceding days—that this was no household wine. Since he no longer intends to act as its steward, he gives it to Messer Geri to use as he pleases. Messer Geri prizes the gift, thanks Cisti, and thereafter considers him a man of great worth and a friend.

Wit, courtesy, and the story’s frame

The episode presents wit as a means of correction that need not become an insult. In the discussion following Pampinea’s story, Lauretta observes that a smart saying should bite like a sheep rather than like a dog: a pointed answer should sting without turning into an affront. “To the Arno” exemplifies that distinction. Its practical consequence is immediate, but its manner leaves room for Messer Geri to understand, correct the mistake, and accept Cisti’s generosity without a public quarrel.

The exchange also makes Cisti’s hospitality more than a matter of serving a fine drink. His small pitcher, clean beakers, and refusal to let the servants taste the wine establish standards that the banquet’s flagon inadvertently ignores. The river-directed quip restores those standards in a few words; the cask that follows turns correction into a gift, and the two men’s relationship ends on friendship rather than embarrassment.