Who with a Tuscan hath to do, Must nor be blind nor see askew

“Who with a Tuscan hath to do, Must nor be blind nor see askew” is the bitter proverb Biancofiore recalls after discovering that Salabaetto has deceived her. It converts her late recognition of the trick into a warning: dealings with a Tuscan demand both clear sight and sound judgment.

Occurrence and Context

After Salabaetto leaves Palermo, Biancofiore waits two months for his return. When he does not come, she has a broker force open the magazines and inspects the goods she had believed to be valuable. The casks hold seawater, with only a little oil near each bunghole; the bales contain tow, except for two that hold cloth. The entire shipment is worth no more than two hundred florins.

The proverb comes as she reckons her losses: she laments the five hundred florins repaid and, more bitterly still, the thousand she had lent. Salabaetto has already left, resolved to give up merchant life and go to Ferrara, so her recognition comes after the opportunity to confront him has passed.

Meaning and Irony

The warning sounds like a general rule about trusting a Tuscan, but its force is personal: Biancofiore has just learned that she misjudged Salabaetto and the cargo. The proverb’s paired images of blindness and skewed sight sharpen the contrast between her confidence before the inspection and the evidence she finds when the casks and bales are opened.

Her final admission that some people know as much as others turns the proverb against her own assumption of superiority. The saying offers no remedy for the loss; it gives her a pointed way to name the reversal and the costly lesson that produced it.