Calandrino’s Bat-Talisman Hoax

Calandrino’s Bat-Talisman Hoax turns Calandrino’s imagined romance into a carefully staged trap. Bruno and his companions encourage him to believe that Niccolosa, the wife of his employer Filippo, desires him; when patience and counterfeit messages have made him both hopeful and distracted, Bruno supplies a supposed magical script to bring the affair to a decisive encounter. The charm does not compel Niccolosa: she and Filippo are participants in the deception, and Calandrino’s credulity carries him into the barn where his wife catches him.

The imagined affair

The scheme begins when Calandrino confides to Bruno that a beautiful young woman has fallen deeply in love with him. He says he noticed her when he went to fetch water, and admits that she seems to be Filippo’s wife. Rather than let this obvious danger correct his judgment, he boasts that he would outwit Christ himself in such a matter, let alone Filippo, and asks Bruno to help him. His account makes desire sound like evidence: because Niccolosa pleases him, he interprets her presence as proof of her passion.

Bruno already knows who the woman is. He has seen Niccolosa and has heard Filippo identify her, so his offer to discover her identity is part of the performance, not an investigation. Calandrino says he does not fear Buffalmacco’s involvement, but worries that Nello, as a kinsman of his wife Tessa, might spoil the plan. This suspicion is misplaced: Bruno tells Nello and Buffalmacco everything, and all three secretly agree to make sport of Calandrino’s supposed love.

A courtship manufactured by the company

Bruno carries the deception into Filippo’s courtyard. There he tells Filippo and Niccolosa exactly what sort of man Calandrino is and arranges what each should do and say. When Calandrino returns, Bruno confirms that the woman is indeed the one he suspects, then invites him to send her a message. Calandrino proposes that Bruno promise her a thousand measures of a substance that gets women with child, and declare him her servant, ready to do whatever she wants. The grotesque bravado is already a joke for the others, though Calandrino believes it is the beginning of a real courtship.

At supper, the painters linger in the courtyard with Filippo and Niccolosa. Calandrino stares at her and makes such exaggerated faces that, the narrator observes, even a blind man would have noticed. Niccolosa performs the part Bruno has assigned her, while Filippo pretends to be occupied in conversation with Buffalmacco and the others. On the walk back to Florence, Bruno tells Calandrino that his attentions have made her melt like ice in the sun and suggests he bring his rebeck and sing to her. Calandrino takes this encouragement literally: the next day he brings the instrument and performs songs to the company’s amusement.

His infatuation soon takes over his working day. He repeatedly runs to the window, door, and courtyard for a glimpse of Niccolosa, while she gives him occasions to hope in accordance with Bruno’s instructions. Bruno answers messages in her name, carries messages supposedly from her, and delivers letters that promise fulfilment while explaining why she cannot yet meet him. With Buffalmacco’s help, he keeps the affair suspended for nearly two months. Calandrino gives the supposed beloved an ivory comb, a purse, a knife, and other small presents; in return, the conspirators supply cheap counterfeit rings. He also pays for delicacies and other refreshments, believing these expenses will secure the friends’ diligence on his behalf.

The bat and the promised meeting

As the work at the mansion nears completion, Calandrino fears that his chance will disappear unless the affair reaches its conclusion. Bruno then proposes that they make Niccolosa comply, whether she is willing or not. Calandrino eagerly agrees. Bruno asks him to procure virgin parchment, a live bat, three grains of frankincense, and a candle blessed by a priest. The list gives the trick the appearance of ritual preparation, but Bruno withdraws to a chamber and writes nonsense in characters of his own invention. He presents the resulting script as a charm that will make Niccolosa follow Calandrino and do whatever he wishes if he touches her with it.

Bruno directs Calandrino to wait until Filippo goes out, touch Niccolosa with the script, and then go to a barn where no one is likely to come. Calandrino spends the night setting out to catch a bat and eventually brings it, along with the other requested materials, to Bruno. The animal and the priest-blessed candle make the counterfeit charm seem concrete; its supposed power, however, rests entirely on the conspirators’ arrangement. Bruno, Filippo, and Niccolosa have planned the encounter, while Calandrino mistakes their cooperation in the prank for a supernatural guarantee.

The barn and the exposure

Nello has meanwhile gone to Tessa in Florence. He reminds her of the beating Calandrino gave her after returning laden with stones from the Mugnone, and tells her that her husband has fallen in love with a woman who meets him secretly. Nello says the pair are to meet that very day and urges Tessa to catch and punish him. Taking a young maid for company, Tessa sets off with Nello for the mansion, treating the report as a serious betrayal rather than a joke.

When Bruno sees them approaching, he signals Filippo. Filippo tells the painters he must go to Florence, then hides where he can watch unseen. Calandrino waits until he thinks Filippo has gone, finds Niccolosa alone in the courtyard, and touches her with the script. She immediately goes with him to the barn, as arranged. Once inside, she shuts the door, throws him onto the straw, and holds him by the shoulders, keeping his face away from hers. She speaks as though Calandrino were the object of her long desire, while he, unable to move freely, begs to kiss her. The scene reverses his fantasy: the charm appears to have succeeded, but Niccolosa controls the encounter and Calandrino cannot act as its triumphant director.

Bruno, Buffalmacco, and Filippo have come close enough to see and hear what happens. As Calandrino tries to kiss Niccolosa by force, Nello arrives with Tessa and announces that the pair are together. Tessa pushes open the barn door and sees Niccolosa astride Calandrino. Niccolosa springs away and runs to Filippo; Tessa falls upon her husband, scratches his face, pulls him by the hair, and drags him about while reproaching him for seeking another woman. Calandrino remains on his back and makes no defense. Scratched and humiliated, he pleads with Tessa and explains that the woman was Filippo’s wife. Tessa answers that this does not excuse him, wishing the other woman ill.

Aftermath and comic design

Once they have laughed their fill, Bruno and Buffalmacco appear with Filippo and Niccolosa, pretending to have been drawn by the commotion. They help calm Tessa and advise Calandrino to return to Florence and not come back, lest Filippo discover the affair and harm him. Calandrino goes home crestfallen, scratched, and flayed. He never ventures to the mansion again, and Tessa’s reproaches continue day and night until his fervent love comes to an end.

The trick’s stages make Calandrino’s self-deception visible before the final exposure. He treats a glance as proof, the company’s staged courtesies as confirmation, and gifts exchanged for worthless rings as progress toward intimacy. At last he invests a bat, parchment, incense, and a blessed candle with power because Bruno has told him what to expect. The charm’s apparent success is not a break from the prank but its culmination: Niccolosa’s performance draws him into the exact place where Tessa can catch him. His earlier concern that Nello might thwart the affair becomes especially ironic, since Nello helps arrange its collapse. The ending converts private fantasy into public humiliation among the mansion’s workers and household, then carries its consequences back to Florence in Tessa’s continuing reproaches.