Landolfo Rufolo Turns to Piracy

Landolfo Ruffolo Turns to Piracy is the decisive reversal in a merchant’s fortunes: when competition in Cyprus nearly strips Landolfo of his wealth, he exchanges commerce for armed raiding, recovers what he has lost, and ultimately decides that further gain is not worth another risk. Lauretta’s embedded tale makes the change a sharp turn from one form of maritime enterprise to another, with fortune first undoing Landolfo’s calculations and then rewarding his resolve to recover.

Commercial Failure in Cyprus

In Ravello, Landolfo is already exceedingly rich, but his wealth does not satisfy him; seeking to double it, he plans a venture in the manner of merchants. He buys a great ship, loads it entirely with his own money and merchandise, and sails to Cyprus. There he finds other ships carrying goods of the same kind and quality. Their competition forces him to sell his cargo at a heavy discount and, to dispose of it at all, to part with nearly everything for next to nothing. In a short time, the man who had set out very rich is brought near poverty.

The loss is not merely a setback in his accounts. Landolfo is sorely chagrined and sees no way to recover through the trade that has failed him. He resolves either to die or to regain his losses by taking other people’s goods, unwilling to return poor from the place where he had departed rich. The extremity of that choice gives his turn to piracy its immediate cause: raiding becomes, in his eyes, an alternative to accepting commercial ruin.

From Merchant Ship to Raider

Landolfo sells the great ship and uses its price, together with what remains from his merchandise, to buy a small vessel, light and suited to cruising and arming. He equips it thoroughly for that service and sets out to take the goods of others, especially those of the Turks. The change is embodied in the ships themselves: the large cargo vessel built for trade gives way to a smaller craft prepared for pursuit and attack.

The passage from merchant to pirate is presented as a practical redirection of his maritime skill, not as a return to ordinary commerce. Landolfo changes both his means and his object: instead of carrying his own merchandise to market, he uses his vessel to seize other vessels and their cargoes. His chosen targets, particularly Turkish ships, mark the specific course of the raiding venture.

Recovery and Withdrawal

Fortune proves kinder to Landolfo in piracy than it had been in trade. Over the course of a few years, he captures so many Turkish vessels that he recovers not only what he lost in commerce but more than doubles his former substance. The success reverses the near-ruin in Cyprus, but it does not lead him to pursue wealth without limit.

Schooled by the chagrin of his earlier loss, Landolfo judges that he has enough and fears another mischance. He resolves to be content with what he has gained rather than seek still more. No longer trusting trade with his money, he does not put it to another commercial use; he sets out for home in the same small vessel by which he made his fortune. His decision closes the episode’s arc: the vessel that enabled his rise becomes the means of his withdrawal.

Narrative Significance

Landolfo’s reversal depends on a repeated calculation of risk. Ambition leads him to invest his wealth in a great ship; market competition nearly destroys it; desperation turns him toward piracy; success restores and enlarges his fortune; memory of the original loss finally restrains him. The tale thus distinguishes recovery from endless accumulation: Landolfo’s decisive judgment is not only to risk everything to regain his wealth, but also to stop once he has enough.