Arriguccio Berlinghieri

Arriguccio Berlinghieri is a rich merchant whose attempt to rise socially through marriage leaves him entangled in a story of adultery, jealousy, mistaken identity, and frustrated authority. His effort to police Madam Sismonda’s movements ends not in proof against her but in a beating inflicted on her maid, a rebuke from her family, and the loss of any effective hold over his wife. The tale makes his suspicion both the source of the danger and the weakness that allows her to escape it.

Identity and Marriage

Arriguccio is introduced as a very rich merchant who, in the narrator’s judgment, foolishly believes that marriage can ennoble him. He takes as his wife Madam Sismonda, a young gentlewoman whom the story describes as ill-matched with him. Their unequal social positions are not merely background: his marriage is presented as an attempt to alter his rank, while the mismatch becomes part of the story’s explanation for the distance between them.

Arriguccio spends much of his time away on business. In his absence, Madam Sismonda falls in love with Ruberto, a young man who had courted her for a long time, and the two establish a private relationship. The narration connects Arriguccio’s frequent absences with her opportunity to meet Ruberto, but does not make him aware of the affair until he becomes suspicious. Once suspicion takes hold, his attention shifts sharply: he leaves his usual rounds and other concerns to keep watch over his wife.

Jealousy and Surveillance

Arriguccio’s jealousy changes the household’s routine. He will not go to sleep until he has felt Madam Sismonda come into bed, and this vigilance makes it difficult for her to see Ruberto. Her distress is the immediate consequence of his watching, but the scrutiny also gives her a problem to solve rather than extinguishing her relationship. She observes that Arriguccio is slow to fall asleep but sleeps soundly once he does, and devises a signal that can tell her whether he is awake.

She secretly lets a cord descend from her bedchamber window to the street, runs its other end across the floor, and fastens it to her great toe beneath the covers. Ruberto is to tug the cord when he arrives around midnight. If Arriguccio is asleep, she will let it go and go to the door; if he is still awake, she will pull it toward herself, warning Ruberto not to wait. The arrangement does not guarantee a meeting every night, but it enables the lovers to meet when the signal shows the opportunity is safe. Arriguccio’s close attention to his wife has not secured knowledge of her actions; instead, the cord turns his sleeping habits into part of her plan.

Discovery and Mistaken Pursuit

One night, while Madam Sismonda is asleep, Arriguccio feels the cord with his foot and discovers that it is fastened to hers. He quietly cuts it loose, ties it to his own toe, and waits. When Ruberto tugs, the cord slips free because Arriguccio has not secured it properly. Ruberto understands that he should wait, while Arriguccio rises, takes his arms, and hurries toward the door to confront whoever is there.

The contrast between their expectations drives the reversal. Arriguccio opens the door without the quietness Madam Sismonda would have used. Ruberto recognizes that the person answering is not his lover and flees; Arriguccio pursues him. The two armed men eventually exchange blows, but the noise draws the neighborhood out against them. Afraid of being recognized, Arriguccio lets Ruberto go. He returns without having identified the man or harmed him, and with no further knowledge of the affair than he had before.

Meanwhile, Madam Sismonda has noticed the cord cut from her toe and realizes that her device has been discovered. Anticipating what may happen when her husband returns, she persuades her maid, who knows about the affair, to take her place in bed and endure whatever blows Arriguccio may deliver without revealing herself. Madam Sismonda extinguishes the light and hides elsewhere in the house. Her response turns the husband’s pursuit into a danger for another woman, but also makes his confidence in his own detection the means of his next mistake.

The Beating and Its Aftermath

Arriguccio comes back in a rage and, in the dark, seizes the maid believing her to be his wife. He beats her with fists and kicks, bruises her face, and cuts off her hair. Her broken voice and cries for mercy do not make him recognize that he has the wrong woman. He announces that he will fetch Madam Sismonda’s brothers and have them take her away, then locks the chamber door behind him as he leaves.

Once he is gone, Madam Sismonda relights the lamp, finds the injured maid, comforts her, and secretly arranges care for her. She also compensates her with money taken from Arriguccio’s own funds, and the maid is satisfied with the reward. Madam Sismonda then restores the bed to its proper appearance, dresses as though she has not yet gone to sleep, and waits at the stairhead with a lamp and her sewing. These practical preparations contrast with Arriguccio’s certainty: he believes the hair he has cut will prove his accusation, while the actual victim of his violence is being cared for and his wife is ready to meet the family he has summoned.

When Arriguccio tells Madam Sismonda’s brothers what he thinks he has discovered, they do not sustain his accusation. They scold him, excuse his conduct as that of a drunken man, and warn him that they will punish him if they hear another such report. The outcome leaves him aghast and unsure whether what he did was real or dreamed. He makes no more complaint and leaves his wife in peace. The tale’s account of Madam Sismonda’s future freedom is decisive: by exploiting his mistaken certainty, she escapes the immediate peril and gains room to continue her own affairs without fearing his interference.

Narrative Role and Significance

Neifile tells Arriguccio’s story on the seventh day, after a story of another wife’s ingenuity against a jealous husband. In the preceding framing, Fiammetta condemns jealousy that confines wives and argues that women’s actions against husbands jealous without cause should not be condemned. That context makes Arriguccio more than a deceived husband: he exemplifies the controlling suspicion the day’s stories repeatedly expose as both unjust and self-defeating.

His failure is enacted through a chain of concrete misreadings. He mistakes vigilance for knowledge, the cord’s movement for a reliable signal, the fleeing man’s identity as something he might still discover, and a maid in the dark for his wife. Even the supposed evidence he carries to her brothers—the severed hair—comes from the wrong person. The story does not show him recognizing the truth or reforming through insight; instead, his authority is curtailed by his family’s rebuke and Madam Sismonda’s successful management of appearances. His final silence is therefore less a reconciliation than a consequence of having lost credibility and control.