Emilia, guide to the new lodging

Emilia, guide to the new lodging, is one of the seven women in the company that leaves plague-stricken Florence and tells stories over ten days. The evidence presents her both as a participant in the company’s ordered communal life and as a storyteller who frames episodes of love, separation, and women’s dealings with clerical authority. Her contributions make her a distinctive voice within a gathering whose movement and storytelling are arranged by shared rules and leadership.

Place in the Company

At the end of an evening’s supper, Emilia leads the round at the queen’s command while Pampinea sings and the other women respond. This small task places Emilia within the company’s collective recreation: singing follows the meal, and the women participate together rather than simply listening to individual narrators.

The next morning, Emilia travels with the company as it leaves its current lodging. The Sunday journey takes the group westward along a little-used footpath, and after fewer than two thousand paces they reach a well-appointed palace on a knoll. The seneschal has sent provisions and attendants ahead, so the move forms part of an organized household routine rather than an improvised escape. Emilia’s presence in this procession links her to the company’s changing setting, though the account assigns the planning and direction of the journey to the queen and her seneschal.

Storyteller on the Third Day

When Fiammetta finishes her story, the queen gives Emilia the next turn. Emilia opens by returning the listeners to their city and announcing a tale about a townsman who recovers the mistress he had lost. The story concerns Tedaldo Elisei, a Florentine noble youth whose beloved, Madam Ermellina, abruptly withdraws her favor. After his efforts to regain her fail, Tedaldo secretly leaves Florence, travels to Ancona, assumes the name Filippo di Sanlodeccio, and eventually goes to Cyprus in the service of a merchant.

Emilia’s framing emphasizes the reversal from estrangement to recovery: Tedaldo’s departure follows the collapse of his hopes, while his return to the story’s home city makes renewed understanding possible. She presents his experience as a tale of a lost attachment regained, placing the change in his fortunes within the company’s broader interest in love and the turns of Fortune.

Women, Discretion, and Clerical Conduct

In another introduction, Emilia recalls that earlier stories have shown women exposed to importunities from priests, friars, and other clergy. She adds that such abuses are not exhausted by those examples, and announces a tale about a church rector who presses a gentlewoman to love him despite her refusal. Her framing makes the woman’s response, rather than the cleric’s desire, the measure of the episode.

The woman is Madam Piccarda, a young and beautiful widow of noble birth who lives near the cathedral at Fiesole with her two courteous brothers. Her means are limited, and she spends most of the year in a modest house on her estate. The rector, already old but described as immature in judgment, is arrogant and presumptuous; after declaring his love, he asks Piccarda to return it. She refuses, invoking his position as her spiritual father and priest, his age, and the discretion expected of a widow. Emilia presents Piccarda as a discreet woman who recognizes the impropriety of the rector’s demand and answers it directly.

Narrative Role and Significance

Emilia’s storytelling places intimate relationships alongside the social conditions that shape women’s choices. Tedaldo’s tale begins with concealed love and a secret departure; Piccarda’s begins with a cleric’s presumption toward a woman whose circumstances and reputation matter. In both introductions, Emilia directs attention to how desire meets obstacles and how a person responds when ordinary power or affection turns against them.

Her account of Piccarda also gives her a clear critical stance toward clerical conduct: she identifies the rector’s pursuit as an instance of a recurring pattern of importunity, not as an innocent courtship. At the same time, she centers Piccarda’s judgment and refusal. Emilia’s contribution to the company is therefore not only to supply episodes for entertainment, but to shape how listeners understand the conduct of those who claim spiritual authority and the discretion with which women answer them.