Dianora

Dianora, a noblewoman of Udine, tries to end Messer Ansaldo Gradense’s unwanted pursuit by demanding a garden flourishing like May in the depths of January. The wonder is accomplished, but the decisive act is not the conjuring: when Dianora arrives prepared to keep a promise under her husband’s authority, Ansaldo learns the real cost of his success and refuses to take advantage of it. Her story, told by Emilia on the tenth day, makes generosity answer importunity with restraint rather than possession.

Identity and Circumstances

Dianora lives in Udine, in Friuli, and is married to Gilberto, a wealthy gentleman described as gentle and easy-tempered. Her beauty has drawn the ardent attention of Messer Ansaldo Gradense, a powerful baron celebrated for prowess and courtesy. He repeatedly sends messages through a woman who visits Dianora on his behalf, but his persistence does not win her affection: she rejects what he seeks, and the repeated solicitations become a burden she wants to end.

Dianora’s predicament turns on more than the difference between an admirer and a husband. She has kept Ansaldo’s pursuit from Gilberto and her relatives, and she sees disclosure as the means of last resort if Ansaldo continues. Rather than begin by making a complaint, she devises a condition so extraordinary that she expects it to extinguish his hopes. Her plan is a form of negotiation, but one made under pressure: the request is designed to be impossible, while its terms leave open the possibility that Ansaldo might actually fulfill it.

The January Garden

Through her intermediary, Dianora tells Ansaldo that his repeated offers of gifts cannot make her love him or grant his wishes. She says that if he can demonstrate the depth of his love by producing a garden near Udine, during January, as green and flower-filled as one in May, she might be brought to love him and do his bidding. If he cannot meet the condition, he must stop sending either the woman or anyone else; should he continue, Dianora will tell her husband and kin about his pursuit.

Ansaldo takes the challenge seriously, though the season makes it seem nearly impossible. He sends inquiries in various directions until he finds a man willing to accomplish it through nigromantic art, in return for a great sum. The night before the calends of January, while the cold is severe and everything is covered with snow and ice, the practitioner works in a meadow adjoining the city. By morning it appears, to those who see it, like a garden in full spring, with grass, trees, and fruits of many kinds. Ansaldo has the finest fruit and flowers gathered and secretly sends them to Dianora, inviting her to see the achievement and reminding her of her promise, sworn in return for his proof of love.

Promise and Disclosure

The flowers and fruit make Dianora regret the condition she set. Curiosity nevertheless leads her to visit the extraordinary garden with other women of the city. She admires it, then returns home deeply troubled by what she believes herself bound to do. Her distress is difficult to conceal, and Gilberto presses her to explain it. After remaining silent for a long time out of shame, she tells him the whole sequence: Ansaldo’s pursuit, the demand, the garden, and the promise.

Gilberto is initially angry. He tells Dianora that she acted unwisely by listening to such a message and entering into terms concerning her chastity. Yet he distinguishes her intention from the danger of her bargain: knowing her purpose had been to protect herself, he decides to help her face the obligation rather than simply condemn her. He urges her to go to Ansaldo and seek release from her promise while preserving her chastity if she can. If that proves impossible, he says, she may yield her body on this occasion, but not her soul. Dianora weeps and refuses the favor her husband is willing to grant, but he insists that she go.

Restraint and Narrative Significance

At daybreak Dianora goes to Ansaldo’s house, accompanied by two serving men and a chamberwoman, and without elaborate adornment. Ansaldo is astonished by her arrival. He calls for the man whose art produced the garden, presenting Dianora’s coming as the apparent reward for that skill, but receives her with decorum. In a chamber with a great fire, he asks her to explain why she has come in such company and at such an hour.

Dianora tells him that neither love for him nor a freely pledged faith has brought her there: she comes at her husband’s command, prepared to do Ansaldo’s pleasure. The distinction changes the meaning of the scene. What might have appeared to confirm Ansaldo’s triumph instead reveals that Dianora’s presence is an act of obedience to Gilberto, not a declaration of desire. Moved by Gilberto’s generosity toward his rival, Ansaldo’s passion gives way to compassion. He says Dianora will be treated as a sister for as long as she chooses to remain, and that she may leave whenever she wishes; he asks only that she convey her husband’s thanks and regard him henceforth as a brother and servant. The story’s heading also records that the practitioner subsequently releases Ansaldo from his bond without seeking anything in return, completing a chain of relinquished claims rather than sexual possession.

Emilia introduces Dianora’s story after the company has praised the generosity of Messer Gentile de' Carisendi, proposing to show that magnanimity can be surpassed. Dianora is therefore central to a sequence in which each person’s response creates room for another to act generously: she tells her husband the truth, Gilberto accepts a painful risk to honor his wife’s promise, and Ansaldo declines to exploit either her presence or her husband’s consent. Her initial plan cannot control the outcome—the impossible garden becomes real—but the ending turns on how people interpret obligation. The promise does not erase Dianora’s reluctance, and Gilberto’s permission does not compel Ansaldo to claim her. Restraint, rather than fulfillment of the bargain, settles the conflict.