Ciacco

Ciacco is a celebrated glutton of Florence whose appetite leads him to live by attaching himself to the tables of the wealthy. In Lauretta’s story, his skill at turning social invitations into meals is matched by a talent for arranging an exacting revenge: after Biondello tricks him into expecting a fine dinner, Ciacco uses a false message to get Biondello beaten by the irascible Filippo Argenti. The episode presents him as both comic dependent and resourceful strategist, and ends with the two men understanding that each can answer the other’s trick in kind.

Identity and Social Position

Ciacco is introduced as a man whose means cannot sustain the expense of his appetite. His name is glossed in the story’s note as meaning hog, turning his defining excess into a comic label. Yet he is not described simply as a buffoon: he is well-mannered and full of pleasant sayings. That combination helps him gain access to the company of the rich, who enjoy good food and with whom he often dines and sups, even when he has not been invited.

He makes a living, in effect, as a sponger rather than as a professional entertainer. Biondello follows the same trade. Their shared dependence on other people’s hospitality places them in a small social economy of meals, invitations, and reputation: a meal is both sustenance and a resource to be promised, withheld, or used to make someone ridiculous. Ciacco’s first appearance in the episode is not at a feast but in the market, where he sees Biondello buying fish during Lent.

The False Dinner

Biondello tells Ciacco that Messer Corso Donati is preparing a dinner for certain gentlemen. He claims that three especially fine lampreys and a sturgeon have already been sent there, but that more fish is needed, including the two lampreys he is buying. He invites Ciacco along, and Ciacco accepts, expecting to find the meal Biondello has described.

When Ciacco arrives at Messer Corso’s house, he finds Corso with several neighbours, not a feast in progress. Asked why he has come, Ciacco openly says he expects to dine with them. The table offers chickpeas and pickled tuna, followed by fried fish from the Arno, and nothing more. The contrast between Biondello’s description of choice lampreys and sturgeon and the modest food actually served makes the deception concrete: Ciacco has been sent to a dinner that exists only in his companion’s story.

He is inwardly angered when he recognizes the trick, but he does not confront Biondello at once. Instead, he lets the incident stand as a debt to be repaid. When Biondello later laughs at him and asks how he found the lampreys, Ciacco warns that Biondello will learn the answer in a few days. The delay turns a moment of embarrassment into the beginning of a deliberate counterplot.

The Counterplot and Its Reversal

Ciacco hires a shrewd huckster for a price and takes him near the Cavicciuoli Gallery, where Filippo Argenti is present. Filippo is described as large, rawboned, disdainful, quick to anger, and difficult to joke with. Ciacco gives the huckster a large glass flask and instructs him to ask Filippo for red wine in Biondello’s name, presenting the request as a way for Biondello to make merry with his companions. He also warns the messenger not to let Filippo seize him, since that would spoil the plan.

Filippo takes the message as mockery. He flushes with anger and reaches for the huckster, who has been warned and escapes. Ciacco watches what happens, pays the messenger, and then finds Biondello. He tells him that Filippo is asking for him, without explaining the staged request. Believing the message, Biondello heads to the gallery, and Ciacco follows to see the result.

The retaliation succeeds through misdirection rather than force. Biondello hears Filippo repeat the strange request but does not understand why he is the target. Filippo beats him, rolls him in the mud, and tears off his clothes. The bystanders eventually pull Biondello out of Filippo’s grasp and explain that Filippo had been provoked by the message sent in Biondello’s name. Battered and unable to make sense of the supposed request, Biondello protests that he never asked for wine and returns home, sick and sorry. He works out that Ciacco must have arranged the affair.

Reciprocity and Narrative Role

After Biondello’s bruises have healed and he has begun going abroad again, Ciacco asks him how he liked Filippo’s wine. Biondello answers by comparing it with the lampreys at Messer Corso’s table: each trick has now been named as the other’s answer. Ciacco then makes the terms of their future dealings plain: if Biondello again arranges to leave him without the meal he expects, Ciacco will repay him in the fashion of the beating. Biondello recognizes that wishing Ciacco ill is easier than carrying it out, asks to be at peace, and takes care not to offend him again.

Lauretta presents the episode as revenge, while distinguishing it from the harsher vengeance related in the preceding story. Its symmetry is exact but not equal in consequence: Biondello’s false invitation costs Ciacco a disappointing meal, whereas Ciacco’s counterplot costs Biondello his clothes and leaves him bruised. Ciacco does not answer deception with a direct accusation; he makes Biondello experience the danger of being falsely associated with a provocation. The closing exchange converts the beating into a warning and establishes a wary peace. Appetite first makes Ciacco vulnerable to a joke, but his patience and ingenuity restore his standing within the same world of diners and social tricks.