Madam Giacomina

Madam Giacomina is the wife of Messer Lizio da Valbona and mother of Caterina. In the story of Caterina and Ricciardo Manardi, she stands at the threshold between parental protection and her daughter’s private desire: she conveys Caterina’s request for a bed in the gallery, then helps accept the marriage that follows the lovers’ discovery. Though the story gives her no independent courtship or extended personal history, her practical interventions help redirect a dangerous exposure toward a socially recognized union.

Identity and Family

Madam Giacomina is introduced as the wife of a gentleman of Romagna, Messer Lizio da Valbona. Caterina was born when her father was already nearing old age, and she was the only child remaining to her parents. The couple loved and cherished her dearly, guarded her with great diligence, and looked toward making a distinguished alliance for her. Their care therefore combines affection with an expectation that her marriage will serve the family’s standing.

Ricciardo Manardi frequently visited the household and spoke readily with both parents. They treated him almost as a son, a familiarity that later makes his secret relationship with Caterina a personal breach as well as a threat to the family’s plans. Giacomina’s role is shaped by this close domestic setting: the young man is not an unknown intruder, but someone already trusted within her home.

The Gallery and the Nightingale

Near the end of May, Caterina complained to her mother that the previous night had been too hot for sleep. She proposed sleeping in a gallery beside her father’s chamber and above the garden, where she could enjoy a cooler place and hear the nightingale. Giacomina carried the request to Lizio. When he answered irritably that Caterina could sleep to the crickets instead, Giacomina persisted on her daughter’s behalf, pointing to her discomfort and presenting the wish to hear the bird as a natural curiosity of youth.

Her appeal succeeds: Lizio agrees to have a bed made in the gallery and curtained off. The narrative does not say that Giacomina knows the request is part of a plan to meet Ricciardo. Caterina uses the permission to arrange the encounter, signals Ricciardo, and receives him after the household has quieted. The gallery, intended as a sleeping place under parental supervision, becomes the setting for their secret night together.

Discovery and Response

At daybreak, Lizio enters the gallery to see how well the nightingale has helped Caterina sleep. He finds her and Ricciardo asleep together, naked and embracing. He recognizes Ricciardo, withdraws, and quietly brings Giacomina to see what has happened. She sees the couple for herself and, feeling deceived by Ricciardo, is ready to cry out and reproach him.

Lizio restrains her. He argues that Ricciardo is young, wealthy, and of gentle birth, and that marriage would make him a suitable son-in-law; if Ricciardo wished to leave on good terms, he would first have to marry Caterina. Giacomina is reassured when she sees that her husband is not angry. She also considers that her daughter has slept well and, in the story’s playful euphemism, has caught the nightingale she wanted to hear. Rather than turning the discovery into a public accusation, she keeps silent as Lizio addresses the young couple.

The Marriage Settlement

When Ricciardo wakes and realizes that daylight has exposed him, Lizio demands that he take Caterina as his lawful wife, presenting marriage as the means to repair the fault and avert a worse outcome. Caterina weeps and asks her father to pardon Ricciardo; she also urges her lover to accept the proposed marriage so they can continue their life together in security. Giacomina is present as this confrontation becomes a settlement.

Lizio borrows one of Giacomina’s rings, and Ricciardo takes Caterina as his wife in the parents’ presence. The ring makes the immediate pledge tangible, while the marriage a few days later, celebrated before friends and relatives, gives the union a public and formal conclusion. The story does not specify Giacomina’s role in that later ceremony, but her ring has already helped convert the secret encounter into a recognized bond.

Narrative Role and Significance

Filostrato presents the episode during the Fifth Day as a brief love story that reaches a happy conclusion after sighs, fright, and shame. Giacomina is not its principal lover, but her part links its comic bedroom discovery to the resolution: she advocates for Caterina’s request, witnesses the consequences, and does not obstruct the marriage once Lizio proposes it. Her movement from angry alarm to silence and acceptance helps contain the scandal within the family.

The nightingale conceit binds her actions together. Caterina uses the bird as a plausible reason to sleep in the gallery; Lizio later turns the bird into a euphemism for what he has found. Giacomina first helps make the gallery available and then accepts the joke’s implication, while the borrowed ring supplies a practical answer to the exposure. Through these small domestic acts, the story moves from parental oversight and concealed desire to marriage and peace.