Agnesa’s Recognition and Marriage

Agnesa’s Recognition and Marriage turns a nighttime struggle between rival suitors into a story of recovered family identity and a marriage made possible by recognition. Agnesa first appears as a young woman in the care of Giacomino da Pavia, with no known parents or nameable family origin. When a brawl over her leads to the discovery of a distinctive scar, her past returns: she is Bernabuccio’s daughter, lost during the sack of Faenza. That revelation changes the meaning of the conflict, frees the arrested men, and makes a peaceful marriage possible.

Rivalry and the Nighttime Brawl

Agnesa grows up in Faenza after Guidotto da Cremona, a Lombard soldier and old comrade of Giacomino, entrusts her to him. Guidotto had taken the child away from Faenza during the city’s sack and, when dying, left her and his possessions in Giacomino’s care. Giacomino treats her as his own daughter. By the time she is fifteen, she is considered both beautiful and virtuous, and two young men, Giannole di Severino and Minghino di Mingole, each wish to marry her. Their families do not permit the match, and each suitor begins looking for another way to reach her.

Their separate plans converge without either man knowing the other is acting that night. Giannole cultivates Crivello, a servant in Giacomino’s household, who agrees to signal when Giacomino is away and open the door. Minghino has separately enlisted the maidservant, who has carried messages to Agnesa and promises him an opportunity to enter. When Giacomino goes out to supper, the maid tells Minghino to wait nearby for her signal. He and his armed companions take shelter in a neighbor’s house; Giannole and his companions wait at a little distance.

Crivello and the maid, each unaware of the other’s arrangement, quarrel over who should leave the house. When the appointed hour comes, Crivello gives his signal and admits Giannole with two companions. Finding Agnesa in the hall, they seize her and try to carry her away. She struggles and cries out, as does the maid. Minghino hears the commotion, rushes in with his companions, and finds Agnesa being dragged toward the door. The men draw their swords and attack Giannole’s party. Neighbors emerge with lights and weapons, condemn the attempted abduction, and support Minghino. After a prolonged fight, he rescues Agnesa and brings her back into Giacomino’s house.

Arrest and the Guardian’s Account

The town captain’s officers arrive before the disturbance is fully over. They arrest many participants, including Giannole, Minghino, and Crivello. Giacomino returns home after the fighting has subsided and is deeply distressed by what has happened. Once he determines that Agnesa was not at fault, however, his anger gives way to a practical concern: he resolves to arrange her marriage as soon as possible, so that a similar crisis will not happen again.

The suitors’ relatives come to ask Giacomino to show leniency toward the imprisoned young men. He answers that Agnesa is not, as people assume, from Cremona or Pavia, but is a native of Faenza. Guidotto had told him that, when the city was taken by Emperor Frederick and given over to pillage, he entered a house with his companions and found it full of plunder. Its inhabitants had fled, leaving behind a girl of about two years old. When she saw Guidotto on the stairs, she called him father. Taking pity on her, he carried her away to Fano with the property he had found. Before his death, he left the girl with Giacomino and charged him to marry her when she came of age, giving her the dowry that belonged to her.

Among the gentlemen listening is Guiglielmino da Medicina, who had been with Guidotto during the sack and recognizes the description of the house. He addresses Bernabuccio, who remembers losing a young daughter in those same troubles. Guiglielmino tells him that the account fits his family and urges him to consider whether he can identify the child. The account changes the issue before the assembled relatives: the young woman whose marriage they came to discuss may be a member of the family whose son is among the arrested men.

The Scar and Recognition

Bernabuccio recalls a particular identifying mark: his daughter had a small cross-shaped scar above her left ear, left by the removal of a tumor shortly before the city’s fall. He asks Giacomino to take him to Agnesa and, with permission, lifts the hair above her ear. The scar is there. The recognition rests not merely on resemblance to her mother, whose face Bernabuccio also sees in Agnesa, but on this precise mark tied to a remembered medical procedure.

Overcome, Bernabuccio weeps and embraces her, though she initially resists. He explains that she is his daughter and that his house was the one Guidotto plundered. In the confusion of the sack, her mother had left her behind; the family had believed she perished when the house burned. Agnesa, seeing Bernabuccio’s age and hearing the account, comes to believe him. She submits to his embrace and weeps with him, moved, the story says, by a kind of instinctive recognition. Bernabuccio then sends for her mother, siblings, and other relatives. After their embraces and the telling of how she was lost, he takes Agnesa home amid general rejoicing, to Giacomino’s satisfaction.

Settlement and Marriage

The discovery also gives the arrest an unexpected consequence. Giannole, who had tried to seize Agnesa, is revealed to be her brother. The town captain, a man of worth, learns of the relationship and releases Giannole, Minghino, Crivello, and the other participants. He then intercedes with Bernabuccio and Giacomino, makes peace between the two young men, and gives Agnesa in marriage to Minghino, with the approval and contentment of their relatives.

Minghino celebrates with a splendid wedding and takes Agnesa to his home. The account closes by saying that they live together for many years in peace and prosperity. Its resolution does not erase the violence that preceded it: rather, the brawl exposes how little the suitors and household servants understand about Agnesa’s past, while the recovered family connection changes the terms of the dispute. The final marriage follows recognition, reconciliation, and the intervention of the town captain, bringing the story from competing private schemes to a settlement accepted by the families.