Dego della Ratta

Dego della Ratta is a Catalan gentleman and marshal for King Robert whose cultivated appearance and reputation as an amorous courtier conceal a readiness to exploit others. In Florence, he arranges to sleep with a woman against her will by paying her miserly husband with silver coins gilded to resemble gold. Later, Nonna de' Pulci turns the same language of conquest and payment against him, making him leave in shame. His brief appearance links sexual coercion, counterfeit money, and public wit in a single reversal.

Position and Conduct

Dego serves as marshal for King Robert and is described as a man of fine appearance and a great amorist. When he comes to Florence, he takes a liking to a beautiful woman who is the granddaughter of a brother of Antonio d'Orso, Bishop of Florence. Her husband, though of good family, is known for his sordid avarice. Dego exploits that weakness by bargaining with him for a night with his wife.

The agreed payment is five hundred gold florins. Dego has silver popplins gilded so that they can pass for gold unless examined closely, and gives these counterfeit coins to the husband after sleeping with the woman against her will. The exchange is therefore doubly fraudulent: the husband accepts false money, while the woman herself has not consented to the encounter. When the affair becomes widely known, the husband suffers both financial loss and public scorn.

The Bishop and the Public Encounter

Antonio d'Orso, whose niece has been wronged, affects not to know about the affair, despite continuing to associate with Dego. Their outward companionship leaves the earlier deceit unresolved. On Saint John’s Day in Florence, as they ride together and watch the ladies along the racecourse, the bishop spots Nonna de' Pulci, a young woman recently married in Porta San Piero. He points her out to Dego and asks whether Dego thinks he could win her.

The question places Nonna’s honor at risk in front of the people gathered nearby. Rather than quietly dismissing the insinuation, she answers it on its own terms: even if Dego could not win her, she would want good money. Her reply recalls the earlier transaction without naming it outright. Its force depends on the public contrast between Dego’s apparent gallantry and his use of gilded silver to purchase access to another woman.

Exposure and Narrative Role

Nonna’s retort strikes both men. Dego is touched as the author of the fraud against the bishop’s niece; Antonio d'Orso is also stung because the insult falls upon his kinswoman. They ride away abashed and silent, neither looking at the other nor speaking further to Nonna that day. The answer does not undo the earlier coercion or recover the counterfeit payment, but it reverses the social direction of the insult: Dego, who had treated a woman as something to be acquired for money, is himself answered through the language of price.

The episode presents Dego through two linked acts rather than an extended personal history. First, his polished status enables a secret bargain that harms a woman and deceives her husband; later, the same reputation for amorous conquest makes him vulnerable to a pointed public joke. The story’s emphasis falls on the reversal and its audience: a private sexual fraud becomes common knowledge, and a young woman’s quick speech leaves both the marshal and the bishop unable to answer.