Landolfo Is Robbed by the Genoese and Rescued after a Shipwreck

Landolfo Ruffolo’s attempted return home brings his fortunes to their lowest point and then, through an unlikely rescue and a chest of jewels, restores him to prosperity. The episode makes survival a sequence of precarious choices: a refuge becomes a trap, wreckage becomes a raft, and the object that threatens to drown him becomes the means of his recovery.

From piracy to a dangerous return

After losing much of his merchant wealth, Landolfo had turned to piracy, outfitting a small, nimble vessel and preying especially on Turkish ships. In time he recovered what he had lost and more than doubled his former fortune. Having learned caution from his earlier losses, he decided he had enough and resolved to return home rather than risk another venture. He carried his wealth in the little vessel that had served him as a pirate ship.

When he reached the Archipelago, a violent southeast wind drove him into the shelter of a small island’s inlet. Two large Genoese carracks arriving from Constantinople soon sought refuge in the same harbour. Their crews knew by report that Landolfo was rich. They blocked the exit from the inlet and prepared to take his vessel. Armed men with crossbows landed and positioned themselves so that anyone trying to leave the ship would be shot. The rest came alongside in small boats, using the current to board. They captured the ship, its crew, and Landolfo without losing a man. Landolfo was transferred to a carrack with only a poor doublet left to him; the raiders stripped his vessel of everything and scuttled it.

The wreck off Cephalonia

The following day the carracks sailed west as the wind shifted. By evening, another tempest rose and separated them. The carrack carrying Landolfo struck a shoal off Cephalonia with such force that it broke apart amidships. In the darkness, the sea filled with floating merchandise, chests, and planks. Those who could swim tried to seize whatever came within reach.

Landolfo had repeatedly wished for death that day, preferring it to returning home poor. But when death seemed close, fear made him cling to a plank. At daylight he found himself surrounded by sea and clouds, with a chest drifting nearby. He feared it would smash into him and pushed it away whenever it came close. A sudden gust drove the chest against his plank, overturning it and forcing him underwater. He surfaced, saw the plank out of reach, and, afraid he could not regain it, made for the chest instead. He laid himself across its lid and guided it with his arms.

He spent that day and the following night adrift, without food and with more seawater than he wanted to drink. The next day, clinging to the chest with both hands, he reached the coast of Corfu. A poor woman there was scouring her pots and pans with sand and seawater. At first she recoiled from the strange shape in the water; looking more closely, she recognized Landolfo’s outstretched arms and face. Once the sea had calmed, she waded in, seized him by the hair, and dragged him ashore with the chest.

Rescue and recognition of the chest’s value

Landolfo’s hands were so tightly clasped around the chest that the woman had difficulty freeing them. She set the chest on her young daughter’s head and carried Landolfo to her hut as though he were a child. There she put him in a bath and warmed and rubbed him until his body heat and some of his strength returned. She gave him good wine and confections, cared for him for several days, and kept the chest safe while he recovered and learned where he was.

When she returned it, Landolfo had forgotten what it contained. He thought it might be worth enough to cover his expenses for a few days, but its lightness disappointed him. While his hostess was away, he opened it and found precious stones, both mounted and unmounted. Familiar with such valuables, he recognized their great worth and gave thanks that he had not been abandoned. Yet, having twice been badly thwarted by fortune in a short time, he feared another reversal. He wrapped the stones in rags and, when the woman returned, told her he no longer needed the chest. He offered it to her in exchange for a bag, which she willingly gave him.

Return and aftermath

After thanking his rescuer as best he could, Landolfo boarded a vessel for Brindisi and travelled along the coast to Trani. There, townsmen of his who were drapers gave him clothing for nothing, lent him a horse, and sent him under escort toward Ravello, where he hoped to return. He had told them his adventures but had kept the chest secret. Only when he felt secure in Ravello did he examine the jewels carefully. At a fair price, or even less, they would make him twice as rich as he had been when he left home.

Landolfo sold the jewels and sent a substantial sum to the woman on Corfu in gratitude for saving him from the sea. He sent another sum to the people of Trani who had clothed and assisted him. He kept the rest, lived honourably and prosperously, and never again sought to trade. The ending reverses the apparent logic of his misfortunes: the chest first seems a threat, then becomes his refuge, and finally proves to contain the wealth that allows him to return home. His rescue depends not only on endurance but on successive acts of help—from the woman who draws him ashore to the townsmen who equip him for the last stage of his journey.