Ginevra publicly exposes Ambrogiuolo when, after six years living under the name Sicurano, she brings the man who falsely claimed to have slept with her before the Soldan and makes him confess in Bernabo’s presence. The disclosure overturns the story that had condemned her: Ambrogiuolo’s boast had provoked Bernabo to order her death, but Ginevra survived, secured a position of trust, and arranged a hearing at which both men must confront what they did. Her vindication is at once a recovery of her name and a public demonstration of how deception can be answered with patience, evidence, and command of the proceedings.

From the Stolen Tokens to the Hearing

As governor of the merchants’ fair at Acre, Ginevra encounters a purse and girdle among the goods in a Venetian merchants’ shop. She recognizes them as her own, belongings taken by Ambrogiuolo when he entered her bedroom and staged the evidence that he had been her lover. Rather than expose her recognition or confront him immediately, she asks whose the objects are and whether they are for sale. Her restraint gives Ambrogiuolo room to incriminate himself: laughing, he says the things are his and recounts that Ginevra gave them to him after he lay with her.

He turns the lie into a boast about his wager with Bernabo, who had staked five thousand florins that Ambrogiuolo could not win his wife. Ambrogiuolo claims that he won, and says Bernabo returned from Paris and had Ginevra put to death. The objects thus do more than identify their owner. They connect Ambrogiuolo to the false story and to the chain of consequences that followed it. Ginevra understands that he caused her misfortune, but keeps her composure and acts as though his account amuses her.

Instead of arresting him at once, she cultivates his acquaintance. When the fair ends, Ambrogiuolo accompanies her to Alexandria with his merchandise. There she has a warehouse built for him and entrusts him with a store of her own money. He accepts, anticipating profit; his confidence gives Ginevra time to proceed without alerting him to the danger he faces. Meanwhile, she uses the connections of Genoese merchants to bring Bernabo to Alexandria on a plausible pretext. Finding him poor, she arranges for a friend to shelter him privately until the moment for the hearing arrives.

Confession Before the Soldan

Ginevra has already caused Ambrogiuolo to tell his story before the Soldan for the ruler’s amusement. Once Bernabo is in Alexandria, she arranges for both men to be brought before him, with many people present. The Soldan demands that Ambrogiuolo explain how he won the five thousand florins. Ginevra, acting as the Soldan’s trusted officer, adds a threat of severe torment if he will not tell the truth. Frightened and pressured, Ambrogiuolo recounts what happened, expecting to have to return the wager money and the stolen trinkets, but not yet understanding the larger purpose of the inquiry.

Ginevra then turns the questioning toward Bernabo: what had he done to his wife on the strength of this lie? Bernabo admits that, enraged by the lost money and what he thought was the shame brought on him, he ordered a servant to kill her. He says that, according to the servant’s report, wolves devoured her. The public confession establishes both men’s responsibility in different ways: Ambrogiuolo fabricated the adultery and profited from it, while Bernabo trusted that accusation over what years of experience might have taught him about his wife.

Ginevra asks the Soldan to distinguish between the deceiver and the man deceived: she seeks punishment for Ambrogiuolo and pardon for Bernabo. She also explains why the two men can neither recognize nor identify the woman whose fate they have discussed. Ambrogiuolo had injured her honor and reputation with his false claim; Bernabo, more credulous of another man’s lie than of his wife, had condemned her to death. Although she has lived with them both, neither knows her now. The Soldan agrees to let her appear before them.

Sicurano Reveals Ginevra

Only after the Soldan grants her request does Ginevra abandon the public identity she has maintained. Weeping, she kneels before him, drops the masculine voice and bearing of Sicurano, and declares herself to be Ginevra, the woman Ambrogiuolo falsely accused and Bernabo gave to a servant to be killed. She opens the front of her clothing and shows her breast, making her identity visible to the Soldan and the assembled company. Then she confronts Ambrogiuolo directly, demanding when he ever lay with her. Now he recognizes her, but shame leaves him unable to answer.

The Soldan had believed Sicurano to be a man. Seeing and hearing the revelation, he is so astonished that he doubts his senses before accepting what has happened. His response marks the change in Ginevra’s standing: the officer whose identity had been concealed is now publicly recognized as the woman at the center of the case. The Soldan praises her conduct, constancy, and virtue, and supplies her with rich women’s clothing and attendants. The reveal is therefore not merely a private recognition between husband and wife; it is a public correction, witnessed by the ruler and the people before whom the false account has been laid bare.

Judgment, Reunion, and Return

At Ginevra’s request, the Soldan pardons Bernabo rather than exacting the death his order had deserved. Bernabo recognizes his wife, throws himself at her feet weeping, and begs her forgiveness. Though he had given the order that put her life in peril, she graciously forgives him, raises him, and embraces him as her husband. The marriage is restored through her choice to pardon him, not through any claim that the harm was slight or that his credulity had been harmless.

The Soldan orders Ambrogiuolo to be bound to a stake, smeared with honey, and exposed in a high place until he falls of himself. His property is awarded to Ginevra; it is worth more than ten thousand doubloons. The Soldan also gives a banquet in honor of Ginevra and Bernabo, and grants Ginevra jewels, gold and silver vessels, and money worth more than another ten thousand doubloons. He provides a ship for their return to Genoa. There, the couple is received with great honor, especially Ginevra, whom everyone had believed dead and who is again held in high regard for her virtue.

Ambrogiuolo’s punishment completes the reversal in public view. He had treated stolen belongings and a fabricated sexual encounter as proof enough to win money and ruin another person; now his own account has exposed him, and the goods he meant to use as trophies become part of Ginevra’s recovery. Left at the stake, he is killed and eaten by flies, wasps, and gadflies, until only bones remain. Those bones, left hanging in place, continue to testify to his wrongdoing. The tale thus makes the concealed woman’s return and the deceiver’s visible destruction contrasting endings: Ginevra regains her name, husband, and fortune, while Ambrogiuolo becomes a warning displayed to all who pass.