Guglielmo Borsiere

Guglielmo Borsiere is a well-regarded minstrel whose wit changes the course of a brief encounter in Genoa. Asked to name something never seen that might be painted in a wealthy miser’s new house, he names Liberality: a virtue absent from its owner’s life. The rebuke brings shame, but also a striking change. The man who had hoarded his wealth becomes, according to the tale, the city’s most liberal and hospitable gentleman.

Identity and Courtly Role

The story presents Borsiere as a worthy, well-bred, and well-spoken minstrel, welcomed by Genoa’s gentlemen. He belongs to a tradition of courtly service broader than entertainment alone. As Lauretta’s account explains, minstrels of an earlier age could help negotiate peace between nobles in feud, arrange marriages and alliances, foster friendships, and relieve the weariness of courts with witty speech. Their role also allowed them to rebuke misconduct, speaking with something like a father’s license and authority.

That account sets Borsiere against a degraded contemporary ideal of the minstrel. In its description, later performers trade in scandal, obscenity, discord, and encouragement of shameful behavior, while receiving favor for doing so. This contrast gives Borsiere a significance beyond his individual cleverness: he represents the older, more responsible use of verbal skill, in which amusement and social correction can work together. The criticism belongs to the story’s framing, while Borsiere’s conduct supplies its positive example.

Arrival in Genoa

Borsiere comes to Genoa and is received with honor by its gentlemen. During his stay, he hears repeated reports of Ermino de' Grimaldi’s avarice and meanness and becomes curious to see him. Ermino, for his part, has already heard that Borsiere is a worthy man. Though notoriously miserly, he retains some trace of gentle breeding: he greets his visitor amicably and enters into varied conversation with him.

The meeting therefore begins with a contrast between reputation and conduct. Ermino is courteous in the encounter, but the city’s stories describe a man whose wealth has grown through refusing to spend. Borsiere does not confront him with a public accusation. Instead, the exchange takes place during a tour of Ermino’s fine new house, in a setting where the owner’s prosperity is visible and where he can ask how that prosperity should be adorned.

The Question and the Rebuke

After showing Borsiere and his Genoese companions around the house, Ermino asks what could be depicted in its hall that has never yet been seen. Borsiere first answers that he doubts he can name anything never seen at all, apart from such things as sneezing. He then offers to identify something Ermino himself has never beheld. The distinction turns the question back upon its asker: the answer will not be an exotic subject for the walls, but a judgment on the householder.

Borsiere names Liberality. Its force depends on the gap between the virtue and Ermino’s known habits. The requested painting becomes a measure of the owner rather than a decorative novelty; the house may be new and splendid, but its master has not yet encountered the generosity that would make his wealth socially honorable. Borsiere’s response is pointed without being a direct insult. It lets Ermino recognize the accusation for himself, and makes the possibility of change part of the answer.

Change and Narrative Significance

Ermino is immediately overcome with shame. He says he will have Liberality painted so that neither Borsiere nor anyone else will again be able to say he has never seen or known it. The gesture begins as a promise concerning an image, but the tale reports that the change does not stop at the wall: from then onward, Ermino becomes the most liberal and courteous gentleman of his day in Genoa, hospitably treating both strangers and citizens.

The reversal gives Borsiere’s speech a practical consequence. He does not merely expose a vice or win a verbal contest; his brief, carefully shaped answer is credited with altering the behavior that gave rise to the rebuke. The painting remains the concrete emblem of the encounter, but the decisive proof of Liberality is Ermino’s subsequent hospitality. In this episode, Borsiere’s authority rests not on force or wealth but on judgment expressed at exactly the right moment. His wit makes an unseen virtue visible, then leaves the story to test the image against a changed life.