Ricciardo Manardi and Caterina's Marriage with Her Parents' Consent

Ricciardo Manardi and Caterina's Marriage with Her Parents' Consent is a romance in which a secret meeting, discovered at dawn, becomes the occasion for a marriage accepted by both families. Their affection begins within the household of Caterina’s parents, and the story’s characteristic nightingale wordplay turns a carefully arranged night in the gallery into both a lovers’ tryst and the means by which Messer Lizio recognizes what has happened. Rather than separate the pair, he requires Ricciardo to make Caterina his lawful wife; the private commitment is then affirmed with a public wedding and a peaceful future together.

Household, Affection, and Mutual Recognition

The relationship develops in Romagna, where Caterina is the cherished only surviving child of Messer Lizio da Valbona and Madam Giacomina. Her parents guard her closely and hope to secure for her a distinguished alliance. Ricciardo, a handsome young man of the Manardi of Brettinoro, frequently visits their house and speaks with Messer Lizio. The older couple treat him almost as a son, an intimacy that gives him access to Caterina’s household even as the family’s plans and vigilance restrict her freedom.

Ricciardo falls deeply in love but initially keeps his feelings hidden. Caterina recognizes his affection and returns it rather than withdrawing from it. When Ricciardo finally tells her that he fears dying of love, she answers that she too fears being made to die by him. Their exchange confirms that the desire is mutual, but it also makes clear that affection alone cannot overcome the barriers around her: Caterina is closely watched, and she sees no safe way for him to reach her. Ricciardo proposes the gallery adjoining her father’s garden as a meeting place. Caterina agrees that she can contrive to be there, and the two exchange a single hurried kiss before parting.

The Gallery and the Nightingale

Caterina’s opportunity comes through a complaint about the heat. She tells her mother that she cannot sleep and wishes to hear The nightingale. Madam Giacomina takes the complaint to Messer Lizio, who at first answers with a sharp joke about replacing the bird’s song with the chirping of crickets. Caterina’s insistence that the heat has kept her awake prompts her mother to plead for her; Messer Lizio eventually permits a bed to be made in the gallery, enclosed by a curtain.

The arrangement gives Caterina the opening she and Ricciardo need. Once she has gone to bed, she watches for him and signals their prearranged message. After the household grows quiet, Ricciardo climbs a wall with the aid of a ladder, then struggles along the projections of another wall to reach the gallery. The climb is dangerous, but Caterina welcomes him, and they spend much of the short night together. Their intimacy is narrated through the nightingale motif: the bird Caterina had ostensibly asked to hear becomes the lovers’ playful name for the encounter and its physical fulfillment.

Neither wakes as morning approaches. They fall asleep uncovered and in each other’s arms, so that their closeness is visible when Messer Lizio quietly enters to see whether his daughter has rested. He recognizes Ricciardo and does not immediately raise an alarm. Instead, he brings Madam Giacomina to see the scene, using the nightingale conceit to let her understand what their daughter has obtained. She is at first ready to cry out against Ricciardo, but Messer Lizio restrains her and argues that the young man is rich, well-born, and capable of becoming a good son-in-law.

Discovery, Consent, and Marriage

Ricciardo wakes in daylight and believes himself doomed. He asks Messer Lizio for mercy, acknowledging that he has given cause for anger. Messer Lizio does not treat the discovery as a matter that can simply be concealed or excused: he tells Ricciardo that, to preserve Caterina’s honor and save Ricciardo’s life, he must take her as his lawful wife. The choice is presented as a direct consequence of the night they have shared, but it also reflects the father’s decision to convert a breach of household trust into an acknowledged family bond.

Caterina intervenes in the tense moment. She releases her hold on Ricciardo, covers herself, weeps, and asks her father to pardon him; she also urges Ricciardo to accept the marriage so that they can continue their life together openly and securely. Ricciardo agrees without hesitation. His shame at the offense, fear of death, desire to make amends, and love for Caterina all support the same decision. In the presence of her parents, Messer Lizio borrows a ring from Madam Giacomina, and Ricciardo takes Caterina as his wife without leaving the room. The scene therefore makes the parents’ consent explicit and gives the couple an immediate commitment before the household witnesses.

That first marriage is not the story’s last public confirmation. Messer Lizio and Madam Giacomina leave the newly married pair to rest, and the young couple resume their intimacy. A few days later, Ricciardo speaks more formally with Messer Lizio; the wedding is then celebrated again, this time before their friends and kinsfolk. Ricciardo brings Caterina with ceremony to his own house, where the couple hold honorable nuptials. The conclusion stresses their enduring peace and shared pleasure, completing the movement from a concealed relationship to a publicly recognized marriage.

Narrative Shape and Social Resolution

Filostrato introduces the episode as a short, happy love story after complaints that his earlier tales have made the company weep. The promised contrast is borne out by the plot: the lovers encounter guarded access, a risky climb, and the shock of discovery, but no prolonged separation or lasting punishment. The nightingale’s double meaning links the comic concealment to the decisive evidence of intimacy; Messer Lizio’s figurative language first turns discovery into a joke, then gives way to the unambiguous demand that Ricciardo marry Caterina.

The ending reconciles Caterina’s mutual choice with her parents’ authority over her household and marriage prospects. Her parents had hoped for a great alliance, yet Messer Lizio judges Ricciardo suitable and accepts him as a son-in-law once the relationship is exposed. Caterina is not merely the object of that arrangement: she signals Ricciardo into the gallery, welcomes him, and then actively pleads for the marriage that will secure their future together. The story thus makes consent and family recognition converge, with the secret night ultimately leading not to exile or rupture but to a household formed openly and in peace.