Forese da Rabatta—Giotto

Forese da Rabatta—Giotto is a relationship defined in the Decameron by companionship, contrast, and reciprocal wit. Returning together from their estates in Mugello, the two men exchange jokes about one another’s disheveled appearance; Giotto’s quick reply turns Forese’s mockery back upon him, making the encounter a compact demonstration of how a sharp retort can restore the balance between companions.

Identity and Contrast

Forese is presented as physically small and misshapen, with a flat nose, yet exceptionally learned in the interpretation of law. Men of standing regarded him as a treasury of civil law. Giotto, by contrast, is celebrated for painting: his depictions of nature could seem so lifelike that viewers mistook images for real things. The story places these different kinds of distinction beside an unflattering likeness in appearance. For all Giotto’s artistic renown, the narrator says, he was no better favoured than Forese.

Giotto’s reputation also rests on his humility. Though regarded as pre-eminent in his art, he refused the title of master, while less accomplished men eagerly claimed it. Forese’s legal learning and Giotto’s artistic achievement thus give their comic encounter a double edge: neither man’s worth can be reliably inferred from the face or clothing he presents on the road.

Companions on the Road

Both men had country houses in Mugello. In summer, when the courts were in recess, Forese went to inspect his estates; Giotto had made the same journey. They met while returning to Florence and continued together at an easy pace, described as old men riding slowly. Their shared route and errand establish them as companions before the exchange of insults begins.

A sudden shower interrupted the journey. The two took shelter at a husbandman’s house, where they were known, and waited while the rain continued. Wanting to reach Florence before daylight, they borrowed the only available riding clothes: two old homespun cloaks and two hats rusty with age. Once back on the road, their horses splashed them until both men were drenched and muddy. The borrowed garments, poor mounts, and mud make the mismatch between their reputations and their immediate appearance visible—and give Forese the occasion to tease Giotto.

The Exchange of Jests

After riding in silence for some time, Forese listened to Giotto talking and looked him over from head to foot. Seeing his companion so poorly equipped and bedraggled, Forese laughed and challenged whether a stranger, meeting Giotto in that condition, would believe him to be the finest painter in the world. The joke targets the gap between Giotto’s standing and the sorry figure he cuts after the storm; Forese makes that gap the measure of his wit, without considering that his own appearance is no better.

Giotto answers at once. He suggests that the stranger might indeed believe in his greatness after looking at Forese and deciding that Forese knew his letters. The retort shifts the joke from Giotto’s muddy clothes to Forese’s apparent lack of learning, pointedly reversing the earlier judgment of appearances: Forese is, in fact, a celebrated legal scholar. His expertise makes the reversal especially sharp, while his own shabby state makes it impossible for him to claim the advantage on outward appearance.

Reciprocity and Narrative Significance

Forese recognizes that he has made an error and has been paid back in the same coin. The story therefore presents their teasing not as a one-sided humiliation but as a quick exchange in which the target becomes the speaker’s equal. Giotto’s answer is effective because it returns the original insult in kind, and because Forese has supplied the opening by laughing at a companion whose circumstances mirror his own.

The episode is narrated on the Sixth Day, whose stories attend to wit and well-timed speech. Here the force of the joke depends on its setting as much as its wording: two eminent men, humbled by rain and borrowed clothes, judge one another by appearances until the exchange exposes the folly of that judgment. Their relationship is shown through this single reciprocal encounter; the account establishes shared travel and familiarity, but does not describe a larger history between them.