Biancofiore swindles Salabaetto out of five hundred florins

Biancofiore swindles Salabaetto out of five hundred florins by converting a merchant’s business information into apparent intimacy, then turning his trust into an unsecured loan. In Dioneo’s tale, the theft depends not on a single trick but on a sequence: learn what a traveler can afford, make him feel uniquely desired, stage an opulent courtship, and present a crisis that makes generosity seem like proof of love. Salabaetto parts with the money on a promise; afterward, the access and affection that persuaded him begin to disappear.

The Commercial Setting and the Target

The story places the deception within the customs-house practices of a port. Merchants arriving with goods had them entered in a public record, stored in a designated warehouse, and released after the relevant dues were paid. The record disclosed to brokers what goods were being held, their quantity and quality, and who owned them. That information could support ordinary exchanges and sales, but it also gave unscrupulous intermediaries a way to identify a visitor’s means before approaching him.

Dioneo describes Palermo as a place where women who appeared, to strangers, to be wealthy and respectable could use alluring manners to draw merchants into affairs and take a portion, or even all, of their property. The tale’s commercial machinery is therefore already at work before Salabaetto meets Biancofiore: information about merchandise becomes information about a potential victim. The distinction between a merchant’s public business and his private conduct offers no protection when both can be used to calculate his worth.

Salabaetto is a young Florentine sent by his masters with woollen cloth left over from the fair at Salerno, valued at about five hundred gold florins. He records the goods at the customs house and stores them, but shows no great haste to sell. Fair-complexioned, yellow-haired, lively, and personable, he goes about Palermo for pleasure. Biancofiore hears something of his affairs and notices him. He mistakes her attention for the interest of a great lady and decides to pursue the apparent romance secretly, without telling anyone.

A Courtship Built to Persuade

Biancofiore first lets the attraction gather through repeated glances. She then sends a woman from her household, who presents herself as a confidante and tells Salabaetto that her mistress is so taken with him that she cannot rest. A private meeting at a bathhouse is proposed, and the messenger gives him a ring on Biancofiore’s behalf. Salabaetto welcomes the sign as confirmation of mutual love, kisses it, and promises to meet her wherever and whenever she wishes.

At the appointed time, after vespers on the following day, he finds the bathhouse reserved. Two enslaved women arrive carrying the equipment for an elaborate preparation: a large cotton mattress, fine sheets, a white counterpane, embroidered pillows, and a basket of other provisions. They clean the bath and prepare the chamber. Biancofiore arrives with two more women, greets Salabaetto affectionately, and has him washed by her own hands with scented soap while the attendants wash her. They are wrapped in separate sheets perfumed with roses and carried to the prepared bed. There, bottles of rose, jasmine, orange, and citron-flower waters, expensive wines, and sweetmeats complete the display.

The opulence has a purpose beyond pleasure. Salabaetto sees the careful service, costly materials, and coordinated household and reads them as evidence that Biancofiore is a rich woman. When the attendants withdraw, he and Biancofiore embrace and spend a long time together. Before they leave, she invites him to supper and to stay the night. He accepts her offer of further meetings, by then convinced that her beauty and affectionate attentions mean she loves him deeply.

At her house, the performance continues. Biancofiore prepares a splendid supper and a richly appointed bedroom; fine dresses and costly furnishings reinforce Salabaetto’s belief that he is visiting a great lady. Although he has heard rumors about her way of life, he refuses to believe them—or to suppose that someone who may have deceived others could deceive him. The next morning she gives him a silver belt and a fine purse, presenting herself as generous with everything she possesses. The gifts cost her little beside the confidence they build: Salabaetto continues visiting, grows more entangled, and pays nothing for the company he takes as sincere affection.

The Fabricated Emergency and the Loan

After Salabaetto sells his cloths for ready money at a good profit, Biancofiore learns of the sale from other people. She increases her display of affection, even offering him two fine silver drinking cups. He declines them, reasoning that he has already received gifts and attentions worth roughly thirty gold florins without spending anything himself. Once his affection has been further encouraged by her apparent liberality, an accomplice calls Biancofiore away according to a prearranged plan.

She returns in tears, throws herself face downward on the bed, and performs distress so convincingly that Salabaetto comforts her and asks what has happened. She eventually claims that a letter has arrived from Messina: her brother, she says, will be beheaded unless she sends him a thousand gold florins within eight days. She claims she might otherwise obtain the money or sell one of the family’s farms, but has no time to do so. Her story makes the need both urgent and personal, while casting Salabaetto as the person who can save her brother.

Salabaetto says he cannot provide a thousand florins but can advance five hundred, since he believes she will repay him within a fortnight. The timing is convenient: he has just sold the cloths. Biancofiore responds as if she would rather lend him money than accept his help, then treats his unasked-for offer as proof of his devoted love. She claims to take the loan unwillingly and promises repayment, while suggesting that she could pawn her possessions if no other funds become available. Still weeping, she falls on his neck. Salabaetto comforts her and spends the night with her; the next morning, to prove himself her generous servant, he brings the five hundred gold florins. She accepts them with tears in her eyes, while the narrator makes clear that her inward response is laughter.

Exposure and Immediate Consequences

As soon as Biancofiore has the money, the pattern changes. Salabaetto, who had previously been able to visit whenever he pleased, now finds excuses for refusing him; he gains admission only about once in seven attempts and receives none of the former welcome or caresses. The promised fortnight passes, then another month or two, and when he asks for repayment he receives words instead of money.

Only then does he understand the extent of the deception and his own credulity. He has no written instrument or other evidence of the loan, and he is ashamed to complain because he had been warned about Biancofiore’s sort and expects people to mock him for ignoring the warning. His distress is therefore compounded by the fact that the courtship he believed private has left him with neither the money nor a secure means of demanding it back. He inwardly bewails his foolishness.

Pressed by letters from his masters to exchange and remit the money, Salabaetto eventually decides to leave rather than let his failure be discovered. He boards a small vessel, goes not to Pisa as he should have done but to Naples, and confides his misfortune to his friend Pietro dello Canigiano. That departure marks the immediate reach of Biancofiore’s fraud: it disrupts not only a lover’s confidence but also Salabaetto’s ability to account for the business entrusted to him.

Narrative Design and Significance

Dioneo introduces the tale by arguing that a deception is especially pleasing when the trickster is more skilled than the person who is outwitted. The episode fulfills that design through the contrast between Salabaetto’s self-image as a merchant and his conduct once desire takes hold. He recognizes the customs-house system as a place to store goods, but does not suspect that the records can also tell Biancofiore what he is worth. He has the evidence of rumors, yet dismisses it; he knows that the loan is a commercial act, yet leaves with only a promise.

The story’s reversal is prepared through the same elements that first persuade Salabaetto. The ring, servants, scented bath, lavish bedroom, gifts, and apparent tears all make private affection look substantial and trustworthy. But the final test is not whether Biancofiore accepts his money; it is what happens after she has it. Her sudden unavailability exposes the difference between the appearance of generosity and the purpose behind it. By ending this episode with Salabaetto’s belated recognition, the tale makes the loss of judgment as concrete as the loss of the five hundred florins.