Messer Ansaldo—Gilberto

Messer Ansaldo Gradense and Gilberto are brought into an unusual bond by Gilberto’s response to his wife’s perilous promise: instead of treating her as a possession to be guarded or a source of shame, he sends her to fulfill the promise while preserving her chastity if she can. When Madam Dianora arrives and explains that she comes at her husband’s command, Ansaldo refuses to take advantage of that command. His restraint transforms a contest over a woman’s body into a friendship between the two men, and turns ardent desire toward honorable affection.

The promise and Gilberto’s decision

Messer Ansaldo Gradense has long loved Madam Dianora. After she visits the marvelous garden he has had made, she returns home distressed by a promise she has made to him and sworn to fulfill. Gilberto notices that her unease cannot be concealed and presses her to explain. Once she tells him what has happened, he is initially angry, but then considers her intention pure and sets aside his anger.

Gilberto does not excuse the choices that brought Madam Dianora into this position. He believes she should not have listened to the message or entered into an arrangement concerning her chastity. Yet he distinguishes those mistakes from her intent, and chooses to release her from the binding promise as far as possible without surrendering her honor. He instructs her to go to Messer Ansaldo Gradense and seek release while preserving her chastity if she can. If no other outcome is possible, he tells her she may yield her body, but not her soul. His decision places the burden of resolving the predicament on the two men as well as on his wife: what follows will test whether Ansaldo values her consent and Gilberto’s generosity more than the satisfaction he has pursued.

The meeting at Ansaldo’s house

At daybreak, Madam Dianora goes to Messer Ansaldo Gradense’s house accompanied by two male servants and a chamberwoman. Her formal escort and the early hour make the visit conspicuous, but Ansaldo is surprised by what it means. He calls the nigromancer who made the garden and presents the lady’s arrival as the reward their skill has won. Yet before acting on that expectation, he asks her to explain why she has come.

Madam Dianora answers that neither love for Ansaldo nor a promise freely renewed has brought her there: she is obeying her husband, who has sent her despite the risk to his own and her honor. She says she is prepared, on Gilberto’s command, to do whatever Ansaldo wishes. The declaration reverses the apparent meaning of her arrival. She is physically present and says she will comply, but the story makes the source of that compliance explicit: her husband’s command, not her own desire for Ansaldo. The distinction gives Ansaldo the chance to treat the situation as an obligation to exploit or as an act of trust that calls for restraint.

Ansaldo’s refusal and the friendship

Moved by Gilberto’s generosity, Messer Ansaldo Gradense’s desire gives way to compassion. He refuses to become the cause of dishonor for a husband who has shown such consideration for his love. He receives Madam Dianora with reverence, tells her she may stay as long as she pleases, and promises that she will be treated as his sister. She is free to leave when she wishes; he asks only that she convey her thanks to Gilberto and regard Ansaldo as a brother and servant in the future.

The choice is more than a courteous dismissal. Gilberto’s instruction had allowed for the possibility that his wife might have to yield her body, but Ansaldo declines to make that possibility real. Madam Dianora leaves without being compelled to fulfill the promise sexually and returns under honorable escort. She reports the encounter to Gilberto, and a close, loyal friendship grows between Gilberto and Messer Ansaldo Gradense. The relationship therefore begins in a situation shaped by pursuit and a sworn obligation, but its decisive act is not possession: it is Ansaldo’s recognition that Gilberto’s trust should be answered rather than exploited.

The changed meaning of desire and generosity

The story underscores the effect of Gilberto’s action by showing its consequences for both men. Messer Ansaldo Gradense gives up the fulfillment of the desire that had driven him, while Gilberto’s willingness to risk his honor makes that renunciation possible. Their friendship is a reciprocal result: Gilberto acts generously toward a rival, and Ansaldo responds by protecting the marriage and returning Madam Dianora to her husband unharmed.

The nigromancer, who is owed a promised reward for producing the garden, also refuses payment after witnessing the generosity of Gilberto and Ansaldo. The garden itself disappears after three days, but the exchange it occasioned leaves lasting human ties: the two men become friends, and Ansaldo’s lustful love for Madam Dianora cools into an honorable affection. The narrative sets that transformation against the mere satisfaction of desire. Its measure of generosity is not the ability to obtain what has been pursued, but the ability to relinquish it when another person’s trust and honor are placed in one’s hands.