Azzo d'Este

Azzo d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara, is a briefly seen but consequential figure in the tale of Rinaldo d'Asti: his sudden departure interrupts a planned night with a beloved widow, and the unused hospitality prepared for him becomes the means by which the robbed merchant finds refuge. Though he never meets Rinaldo, his movements set the rescue in motion.

Identity and Setting

The story is set in the days of Azzo d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara. Rinaldo d'Asti, a merchant returning from Bologna, travels out of Ferrara toward Verona when he falls in with highwaymen disguised as respectable fellow merchants. They rob him and leave him in his shirt and barefoot in bitter, snowy weather. Azzo's presence belongs to the same precarious landscape of travel and fortune, but the tale brings him into view through the private household where Rinaldo will seek shelter.

The Interrupted Visit

Azzo loves a beautiful widow as his life and keeps her at his disposition. On the day Rinaldo is robbed, the marquis comes to the town intending to spend the night with her. He has a bath and a sumptuous supper secretly prepared at her house; the widow awaits only his arrival.

Before he can come, a servant reaches the gate with news that requires Azzo to mount his horse and leave immediately. Azzo sends word that his mistress is not to expect him, and departs in haste. The bath and supper remain ready, but the anticipated guest is gone. His abrupt change of plans is the decisive circumstance that reshapes the evening in the widow's house.

Consequence and Narrative Role

With Azzo absent, the widow decides to use the bath prepared for him, then sup and go to bed. The bath is close to the door beneath whose projecting structure Rinaldo has taken cover outside the town wall. Hearing his weeping and chattering, she sends her maid to discover who is there. The maid finds the merchant trembling in the snow and learns how he has been left helpless; the widow's household then becomes a possible refuge where, moments earlier, the town's gates had shut him out.

Azzo does not knowingly aid Rinaldo, and the text gives no account of his return or of any later consequence for his relationship with the widow. His narrative importance lies instead in the chain of contingencies created by his departure: a private appointment is cancelled, its preparations remain available, and a stranger's distress reaches the person with the power to relieve it. The episode makes Azzo's absence, rather than a direct encounter, the instrument through which fortune turns.