Gemmata

Gemmata, the young wife of Pietro da Tresanti, is central to the comic disruption of Dom Gianni di Barolo’s supposed mare-transformation spell. Believing the priest’s claim and urging her husband to learn the charm, she helps bring about the very performance that Pietro’s interruption prevents from reaching its intended conclusion.

Identity and Household

Gemmata lives with Pietro in a poor, small house at Tresanti. The couple has only one bed, which they share, so when Dom Gianni visits, the priest sleeps on a truss of straw beside his mare in the stable. The contrast between this cramped hospitality and the priest’s elaborate claim gives the episode its domestic scale: a guest’s explanation of his sleeping arrangements becomes the source of an imagined sexual opportunity.

The narrative calls Gemmata young and buxom. Her husband and Dom Gianni are bound by a close friendship, maintained through reciprocal hospitality: Dom Gianni lodges and entertains Pietro in Barletta, and Pietro receives him at Tresanti as best he can. Gemmata knows of this generosity and has more than once offered to sleep at a neighbor’s house so the priest might share the bed with Pietro. Dom Gianni refuses that arrangement, saying he is comfortable with the mare.

Belief in the Transformation

Dom Gianni explains that, whenever he wishes, he can turn his mare into a beautiful woman and lie with her, then turn her back into a mare. Gemmata marvels at the account but believes it. Rather than treating the claim as an excuse, she carries it to Pietro and proposes that he ask the priest to teach him the charm. If Pietro could turn her into a mare and use her with the ass and the mare, she reasons, they would gain two animals from one; once home, he could turn her back into a woman.

Her proposal is an effort to convert the priest’s supposed private advantage into a benefit for her own household. She does not merely accept the story passively: she initiates the plan and persuades Pietro, whom the narrative describes as somewhat dull-witted, to press Dom Gianni for instruction. Pietro’s persistence leads the priest to agree to demonstrate the charm the following morning.

The Failed Spell

Gemmata and Pietro scarcely sleep as they await the demonstration. Before daybreak, Dom Gianni enters their little chamber with a light. He tells Pietro to watch closely, keep silent whatever he sees or hears, and pray that the tail will stick. Gemmata is instructed to remain silent too. Dom Gianni strips her, positions her on all fours like a mare, and performs the staged transformation by naming the parts of her body as he touches them.

The performance turns on its final gesture. As Dom Gianni attempts to attach the tail, Pietro objects aloud that he will not have one put there. His interruption breaks the pretended spell. Dom Gianni blames him for speaking after being warned to remain silent and claims the mare had been complete, with no way to repeat the process. The scene’s comedy depends on Pietro taking the transformation literally enough to object, while Gemmata has already accepted the premise and submitted to the enactment.

Rebuke and Aftermath

When the spell fails, Gemmata stands and condemns Pietro for spoiling their affairs. She points out that a mare without a tail is no mare at all and adds that, although he is poor, he deserves to be poorer. Her rebuke makes clear that she regards the interruption not as a rescue from a sham but as a blunder that has cost them the hoped-for result.

Gemmata dresses, woebegone and disconsolate. Pietro resumes his ordinary trade with his ass and goes with Dom Gianni to the fair at Bitonto; he never again asks the priest to perform the service. Gemmata’s brief appearance ends with the collapse of the plan she herself proposed. In the tale’s comic logic, her confidence in the spell makes Pietro’s single objection decisive: a charm that depended on silence is undone by the husband who cannot keep quiet.