Ambrogiuolo’s Infiltration of Ginevra’s Bedroom and Theft of Her Belongings

Ambrogiuolo of Piacenza’s clandestine entry into Ginevra’s bedroom turns a theft into fabricated proof of adultery. Hidden in a chest, he observed her while she slept, stole her belongings, and learned of a distinctive mark on her body; back in Paris, he used those intrusions to make Bernabo Lomellini believe he had possessed her.

The wager and the journey to Genoa

At an inn in Paris, Italian merchants discussed whether their wives remained faithful while they were away. Bernabo Lomellini praised Ginevra as exceptionally capable and steadfast, insisting that even a long absence would not lead her to betray him. Ambrogiuolo mocked this certainty and wagered that he could win her. Bernabo agreed to stake five thousand gold florins against Ambrogiuolo’s thousand, on the condition that the attempt be made within three months and that Bernabo neither visit Genoa nor write to his wife during that time.

In Genoa, Ambrogiuolo made discreet inquiries about Ginevra’s conduct and learned that her reputation matched Bernabo’s account. Rather than abandon the wager, he approached a poor woman who frequented the household. Unable to persuade her otherwise, he bribed her to carry him into the house concealed in a chest made to his own design. The woman left the chest in Ginevra’s bedroom on the pretext that it was entrusted to her temporarily.

The concealed entry and theft

After nightfall, when he judged Ginevra asleep, Ambrogiuolo opened the chest with tools and emerged into a lit bedroom. He studied its paintings, furnishings, and other notable details so that he could later describe them. Ginevra was asleep in bed with a little girl. He uncovered Ginevra and found a mole beneath her left breast, surrounded by several small hairs as red as gold.

Although her beauty tempted him to risk lying beside her, he did not do so. He had heard that she was resolute in such matters and chose not to test her. Instead, he waited in the room for much of the night, then took a purse, a night-rail, rings, and girdles from one of her coffers. He returned to the chest and concealed himself inside it again. The intrusion and theft went unnoticed by Ginevra.

Repetition and removal of the evidence

Ambrogiuolo repeated the operation on two nights. On the third day, the woman returned for the chest and carried it away from the house. Once out, Ambrogiuolo emerged and rewarded her as promised. He then hurried back to Paris with the stolen possessions and arrived before the wager’s three-month deadline.

His method depended on keeping the intrusion invisible while collecting details that could pass as evidence of intimacy. The room’s arrangement and paintings could be described; the purse, night-rail, rings, and girdles could be displayed; and the mark on Ginevra’s body supplied a detail that seemed impossible to know without access to her sleeping body. Yet the apparent proof came from trespass and theft, not from the sexual encounter Ambrogiuolo claimed.

The claim in Paris

Before the merchants who had witnessed the wager, Ambrogiuolo described Ginevra’s bedroom and displayed the belongings he had taken, asserting that she had given them to him. Bernabo recognized both the room and the objects but initially argued that servants might have supplied those details. Ambrogiuolo then named the mole beneath Ginevra’s left breast and the reddish hairs around it. Bernabo’s changed expression betrayed that the detail was true; he accepted Ambrogiuolo’s claim and paid the wager in full.

The scene’s reversal rests on the difference between knowing and proving. Ambrogiuolo has obtained genuine knowledge of Ginevra, but only by entering her private room under false pretenses and stealing from her. Those facts make his account persuasive to Bernabo while leaving its central claim false: Ambrogiuolo’s evidence shows that he reached Ginevra’s bedroom, not that she consented to him.