Antonio d'Orso

Antonio d'Orso, the Bishop of Florence, is presented as a learned and worthy prelate whose discretion is tested by a sexual and financial scandal involving a woman of his family. His brief appearance culminates in a public exchange with Nonna de' Pulci: her quick reply turns his teasing into an affront returned, and leaves both him and Dego della Ratta ashamed and silent.

Identity and Family Connection

Antonio is identified as Bishop of Florence and described as learned and worthy. The scandal that shadows his encounter with Nonna concerns a beautiful Florentine woman who was the granddaughter of one of his brothers. Her husband, though well born, was miserly. Dego, a Catalan gentleman serving as marshal for King Robert, arranged to pay the husband five hundred gold florins for a night with her. He had silver poplins gilded to pass as gold, and the encounter took place against the woman’s will. Once the deception became widely known, the husband suffered both financial loss and public scorn.

Discretion and Association with Dego

Antonio affected to know nothing of the affair. The story presents this silence as the conduct of a discreet man, even though the injured woman was his kinswoman. He and Dego continued to associate closely, a detail that gives their later public exchange its double edge: the bishop’s easy familiarity with the marshal sits beside his apparent refusal to confront the harm done to his family. The tale does not report Antonio taking action over the fraud or the woman’s treatment; instead, it makes his silence part of the circumstances that sharpen Nonna’s response.

The Exchange with Nonna de' Pulci

On St. John’s Day, while Antonio and Dego rode together and watched the ladies gathered along the route of the race, the bishop pointed out Nonna de' Pulci, a young woman recently married in Porta San Piero. He asked her whether she thought she could win Dego over. Nonna understood that the remark, made within hearing of a crowd, risked staining her honour in the eyes of those present. Rather than accept the insinuation or answer meekly, she replied that Dego might not win her, but that she would require good money in any case.

Her words struck both men: Dego was exposed as the author of the earlier bargain, while Antonio was rebuked through the insult directed at his kinswoman. They rode away ashamed and silent, neither looking at the other nor speaking to Nonna again that day. The reply does not undo the earlier injury, but it makes the men who had benefited from silence feel the force of public embarrassment.

Narrative Role

Lauretta introduces the episode while distinguishing a sharp retort from an unprovoked affront: a reply may answer a prior injury without becoming the same kind of attack. Antonio’s question supplies the provocation, and Nonna’s answer returns it with calculated precision. His role is therefore less that of a sustained protagonist than of a respected public figure briefly caught between clerical dignity, family connection, and association with a compromised companion. The story’s irony rests on that contrast: the prelate who had discreetly ignored a scandal finds himself publicly touched by the very conduct he had left unchallenged.