Friars Minor

The Friars Minor are invoked in a comic episode chiefly as material for Buffalmacco’s elaborate mockery. The references connect the order first to a grotesque allegory of public sewers and later to a cemetery that Master Simone claims to have passed without fear; neither supplies substantive information about the order’s real organization or religious life.

The Order in Buffalmacco’s Invention

While deceiving Master Simone, Buffalmacco describes a fantastical Countess of Jakes, a personification of Florence’s public sewers. He claims that even the Friars Minor pay her tribute, accompanied by a loud bodily noise. The joke makes the order part of an intentionally indecorous fiction: its mention heightens the absurd grandeur Buffalmacco assigns to the countess rather than reporting an actual connection between the friars and the sewers.

The Cemetery and Master Simone’s Boast

Master Simone answers the rogues’ invitation by insisting that he is exceptionally brave. As evidence, he recalls going with only his servant past the cemetery of the Friars Minor shortly after the Ave Maria, on the very day a woman had been buried there, without feeling afraid. He presents the episode as proof of his nerve and promises to appear in his scarlet doctoral gown when summoned. The cemetery reference thus serves his self-promotion, not a description of the friars’ customs.

Narrative Function

The order’s two appearances belong to different parts of the same comic deception: Buffalmacco’s insultingly extravagant tale and Master Simone’s boastful response. In the first, the friars’ supposed tribute helps make the invented countess seem powerful; in the second, their cemetery furnishes a test by which the physician advertises his courage. The episode offers a satirical use of clerical associations, not evidence about the Friars Minor beyond these narrative references.