Martuccio Gomito

Martuccio Gomito’s story turns on a reversal: the young man who leaves Lipari to become rich enough to marry Costanza loses his freedom at sea, then wins a new life through the practical intelligence that earns a king’s trust. His fortunes change not through a return to his old circumstances, but through a sequence of crossings—between islands and shores, captivity and favor, and the two lovers’ separate lives—that finally brings him home with Costanza as his wife.

Identity and Introduction

Martuccio is a young man of Lipari, near Sicily, described as agreeable, well-bred, and of proven worth in his condition. He falls in love with Costanza, a beautiful young woman born into a considerable family on the same island. Their attachment is mutual: Martuccio is never at ease unless he sees her, and he wants to marry her.

The obstacle is his poverty. When Martuccio asks Costanza’s father for her hand, the father refuses because Martuccio is poor. The refusal makes the young man angry, but it also sets the story in motion: rather than accept that poverty bars him from marriage, he decides to leave and seek the wealth he believes will make the match possible.

Departure, Piracy, and Captivity

With certain friends and kinsmen, Martuccio equips a light ship and swears not to return to Lipari unless he is rich. He turns corsair off the coast of Barbary, plundering those weaker than himself. Fortune initially favors these expeditions, but Martuccio does not know how to limit his ambition. Wanting to grow excessively rich, he and his companions continue until Saracen ships take them after a long defense, scuttle their vessel, and carry Martuccio to Tunis. There he is imprisoned and kept in misery for a long time.

His capture answers his original ambition with a sharp reversal. The attempt to acquire wealth has separated him from Costanza and cost him his freedom; at home, she eventually mourns him as lost and dead. Yet the qualities that remain useful in prison are not the strength of his ship or the wealth he hoped to gain, but his knowledge of the region and his ability to judge how a battle is fought.

Counsel to the King of Tunis

While Martuccio is imprisoned, a powerful young claimant from Granada raises a force against King Mariabdela of Tunis, asserting that the kingdom belongs to him. Martuccio hears of the king’s preparations for defense and tells his keeper that he can offer counsel that may win the war. The report reaches the king, who summons him to explain his plan.

Martuccio observes that the king’s armies depend especially on archers. He proposes that the king secretly equip his own archers with unusually thin bowstrings and arrows whose narrow notches fit those strings. In battle, both sides will recover arrows after shooting them. The enemy’s thick bowstrings will not fit the narrow notches on Martuccio’s arrows, but the king’s thin strings will fit the wider notches on the enemy’s arrows. The result, if the battle lasts, will be an unequal supply: the king’s archers can use recovered enemy arrows, while the enemy cannot use the king’s.

The king approves the plan and follows it precisely. It brings him victory, and Martuccio rises into the king’s favor, attaining a high and wealthy position. His change of fortune thus follows a concrete act of counsel: he identifies how a small difference in equipment can turn the enemy’s own ammunition into an advantage. The ingenuity that once failed to secure his freedom by piracy now earns him status through service to the king.

Costanza and the Reunion

News of Martuccio’s success reaches Costanza, who has been living in Susa and believes him dead. The report rekindles her love more strongly than before and restores the hope she had lost. She tells the elderly gentlewoman who has sheltered her that she wants to go to Tunis and see whether Martuccio is alive. The woman approves, travels with her, and arranges for Carapresa to discover what has become of him.

Carapresa finds Martuccio alive and prosperous. The gentlewoman then brings him to her house by saying that a servant from Lipari wishes to speak with him privately. When he sees Costanza, he is stunned and asks whether she is still alive, explaining that he had heard she was lost and that nothing had been learned of her in their homeland. Costanza runs to him, embraces him, and weeps; Martuccio embraces and kisses her in turn. Their reunion joins compassion for their past misfortunes to joy at finding each other again.

Costanza recounts what has happened to her and the honorable treatment she received from her hostess. Martuccio then reports their histories to the king and asks leave to marry her according to their law. The king confirms Costanza’s account, declares that she has earned Martuccio as her husband, and gives magnificent gifts, dividing them between the two lovers. His permission turns Martuccio’s new standing into the means of restoring their relationship openly and securely.

Return and Narrative Significance

Before leaving, Martuccio thanks the gentlewoman who sheltered Costanza and gives her gifts suited to her station. He and Costanza depart with Carapresa aboard a small ship, return with a fair wind to Lipari, and are welcomed with great rejoicing. Martuccio marries Costanza in a splendid wedding, and they live together for a long time in peace and repose.

Told by Emilia on the Fifth Day, the story places Martuccio’s rise within a sequence of separation, danger, and recovered happiness. His pursuit of wealth first carries him away from Costanza and into imprisonment; the king’s war then gives his knowledge a different value, and his new favor makes reunion possible. The return to Lipari answers the vow that began his departure, but the marriage is achieved not by riches alone: it depends on the counsel that wins the king’s confidence, the care Costanza receives in Susa, and the aid that carries the two lovers back to their island.