Agnesa’s lost parentage and orphaned upbringing

Agnesa’s lost parentage and orphaned upbringing shape the central reversal of her story: found as a toddler amid the destruction of Faenza, she is raised lovingly by a guardian but grows up without knowledge of her birth family. Her identity is recovered not through a remembered name or a surviving document, but through the account of the man who rescued her and a small cross-shaped scar above her left ear. Recognition restores her to her parents, reveals that one of her suitors is her brother, and redirects a romantic rivalry toward a different marriage.

Found During the Sack of Faenza

Agnesa’s separation from her family begins when Faenza is taken by Emperor Frederick and given over to pillage. Guidotto da Cremona later recounts that he entered a house with his companions and found it full of plunder, its inhabitants gone except for a little girl of about two. The child called him father. Moved by compassion, he carried her away with the goods and brought her to Fano. Her family believed she had perished when their house was burned; the sudden violence of the sack had left her behind, not deliberately surrendered.

The surviving account does not establish that Agnesa consciously remembered her parents or the circumstances of her removal. Instead, it presents a child whose origins are unknown to the people responsible for her upbringing. Guidotto eventually gives her, together with all his possessions, to his old friend and comrade Giacomino da Pavia. He has no son, other close kin, or trusted friend he prefers, and on his deathbed he charges Giacomino with caring for the girl and, when she is old enough, arranging her marriage and providing a dowry from what had been hers.

A Daughter Raised Without Her Lineage

Giacomino takes Agnesa with him when he returns to Faenza, a city recovering enough from its long period of war to permit former residents to settle there again. He loves and treats her as his own child. That household gives her care and a secure place, but neither Giacomino nor Guidotto can tell her birth family’s identity: Guidotto had rescued her amid the sack, and the child’s parents were not present to reclaim her. Giacomino therefore raises her without knowing whose daughter she is, while preserving Guidotto’s instructions about her future marriage and dowry.

As she grows, the story describes Agnesa as beautiful, virtuous, and well brought up. By the age of fifteen, she attracts many suitors, particularly Giannole di Severino and Minghino di Mingole, two young men of equal standing who both wish to marry her. Their families do not permit either match, and the refusals do not settle the matter: the young men turn instead to competing for her by other means. Agnesa’s unknown parentage thus remains an active condition of her life. The people around her make decisions about her marriage without knowing the family connections that will eventually determine which of those decisions is possible.

The Conflict That Brings Her Origins to Light

The rivalry escalates into an attempted abduction from Giacomino’s house. Giannole enlists the household servant Crivello, while Minghino and his companions also come seeking Agnesa. Their confrontation becomes a street fight; officers arrest Giannole, Minghino, Crivello, and others involved. Agnesa herself is found to be at no fault. The incident alarms Giacomino, who resolves to marry her promptly so that another disturbance of this kind will not occur.

The young men’s relatives appeal to Giacomino for leniency, offering to make amends. His answer exposes the uncertainty at the heart of Agnesa’s upbringing: she is neither from Cremona nor from Pavia, as people might suppose, but a native of Faenza. Even Giacomino cannot say who her parents were. He explains that Guidotto found her in a house during the sack, when she was about two, and carried her away with the property. Agnesa’s unknown birth is not a secret she has chosen to keep; it is a gap inherited from the violence that separated her from her family and from the limits of what her rescuer could discover.

The Scar and the Return to Her Family

Among those hearing Giacomino’s account is Guiglielmino da Medicina, who had been present during the pillaging and remembers the house Guidotto entered. He recognizes the account as pointing to Bernabuccio, whose household was plundered, and Bernabuccio recalls losing a little daughter of the right age in those troubles. To test the possibility, he remembers a distinguishing mark: a small cross-shaped scar above the girl’s left ear, left by the removal of a tumor when she was young.

Giacomino brings Bernabuccio to his house. At first, Agnesa’s resemblance to her mother supports the identification, but Bernabuccio asks to examine the mark rather than rely on appearance alone. Raising the hair above her left ear, he finds the cross-shaped scar. The bodily detail turns a plausible story into recognition: Bernabuccio identifies Agnesa as his daughter and explains that her mother had forgotten her in the confusion, while the family had believed she died in the burning of their house.

Agnesa accepts his account and, seeing him as an older man, yields to his embrace; the story describes her response as moved by an instinctive feeling. Bernabuccio summons her mother, siblings, and other female kin, and presents Agnesa to them. After their embraces and reunion, he takes her into his household. Her childhood as Giacomino’s cherished dependent is not erased, but her place within her birth family is restored, and her identity is no longer an unresolved question.

Consequences for Her Marriage and the Story

Recognition changes the meaning of the earlier contest. Giannole, who had pursued Agnesa as a suitor, is revealed to be her brother and is released from prison along with Minghino, Crivello, and the others after the town captain learns the truth. The captain also mediates between the households. With Giannole no longer a rival for Agnesa’s hand, the captain and the families make peace, and Agnesa is given in marriage to Minghino. Their wedding satisfies both sets of kin, and the couple live together for many years in peace and prosperity.

The recovery of Agnesa’s parentage therefore resolves more than a question about descent. Her unknown origins had left her raised outside her birth family and had concealed a sibling relationship that made one proposed marriage impossible. The story links a private mark, a remembered account of wartime plunder, and public reconciliation: the scar restores a family connection, while recognition redirects conflict into a socially accepted marriage. Her upbringing under Giacomino and her return to Bernabuccio’s household form two distinct parts of her history, joined by the moment when the past becomes identifiable.