Guglielmo Borsiere’s rebuke of Ermino Grimaldi

Guglielmo Borsiere’s rebuke of Ermino de' Grimaldi turns a request about decorating a new house into a public moral correction: the minstrel names the virtue the wealthy host has conspicuously failed to practice, and Ermino responds by changing his way of life. Told by Lauretta as a story of a sharp reproof that produces good, the episode makes liberality visible first through its absence and then through the change it provokes.

Ermino’s Wealth and Reputation

In Genoa, Ermino de' Grimaldi was believed to possess more land and money than any other known wealthy citizen in Italy. Yet the story measures his distinction not only by the scale of his fortune but by the meanness with which he guarded it. He was tight-fisted in hospitality and, against the Genoese custom of dressing sumptuously, denied himself necessities, food, and drink rather than spend. His family name gave way in common usage to a nickname marking his defining vice: people called him Ermino Avarizia.

The Minstrel’s Social Role

Guglielmo Borsiere arrives in Genoa as a well-bred and eloquent minstrel, already honored by the city’s gentlemen. Lauretta contrasts his kind of service with that of contemporary figures who claim the standing of gentlemen but spread slander, sow discord, and encourage shameful conduct. In the earlier ideal she describes, a minstrel could help settle feuds, arrange marriages and alliances, entertain tired minds, and rebuke misconduct with pointed speech. Borsiere’s encounter with Ermino enacts that last duty: his words are not idle amusement but a form of social correction.

The Request About the New House

Having heard much about Ermino’s avarice, Borsiere wants to see him. Ermino nevertheless receives him with friendly words and a cheerful manner; despite his miserliness, he retains some trace of gentle breeding. As they converse, Ermino takes Borsiere and other Genoese visitors through a fine new house he has recently built. Showing him the rooms, Ermino asks for an image of something never yet seen that could be painted in the house’s hall.

Borsiere answers that he cannot readily name anything unseen, except perhaps a sneeze or something similar. He then offers a more pointed possibility: Ermino might have Liberality depicted. The suggestion makes the requested image into an accusation. Ermino’s wealth has enabled him to build a fine house, but his conduct has left him unfamiliar with the virtue he now proposes to display there.

Shame, Change, and Significance

Ermino is immediately ashamed. He promises that Liberality will be painted in such a way that neither Borsiere nor anyone else will again be able to say he has never seen or known it. The account gives the reply a consequence beyond the conversation: from then on, Ermino becomes the most liberal and courteous gentleman of his day in Genoa, hospitably receiving both strangers and citizens.

The episode’s reversal is compact but decisive. A man whose wealth grew through spending nothing is changed not by force or a demand for payment, but by a rebuke that makes his public reputation confront his private conduct. Borsiere’s proposed painting turns an abstract virtue into a test of the host’s life; Ermino answers not merely by decorating the hall, but by making liberality visible in his treatment of others.