Giannello Strignario

Giannello Strignario is the young lover whose quick compliance and timely improvisation help Peronella conceal their affair when her husband unexpectedly returns. In the seventh day’s third tale, the household’s Peronella’s vat serves first as hiding place, then as the pretext for a sham sale, and finally as cover for the lovers’ intimacy while the husband scrapes it clean. Giannello’s survival of the crisis depends on adapting to Peronella’s invention rather than taking control of the deception himself.

Identity and Introduction

Giannello is a young gallant from Peronella’s neighbourhood in Naples. After seeing her and falling in love with her, he persistently courts her until the two become familiar and arrange to meet in secret. Their opportunity depends on the routine of her husband, a poor mason who leaves home early to work or seek work. Giannello waits until he sees the husband go out, then visits Peronella at her house on the solitary street called Avorio. The arrangement has worked many times before the morning on which the husband returns unexpectedly.

The Unexpected Return

On that morning, Giannello is with Peronella when her husband comes back and knocks at the locked door. Peronella recognizes his way of knocking and immediately warns her lover that she does not know why he has returned so early; she fears he may have seen Giannello enter. She tells him to get into the vat while she opens the door and discovers what has happened. Giannello obeys at once, scrambling into the vessel before the husband can see him.

The husband’s interpretation of the locked door makes the danger more acute and the deception more ironic. He takes it as evidence that his wife is honest and has shut the door to keep anyone from troubling her. Peronella, meanwhile, meets his return with reproaches, presenting his arrival with tools in hand as proof that he has neglected the work on which their household depends. Her performance turns suspicion away from the concealed lover and toward a dispute about poverty and labour.

The Vat Becomes a Bargain

The husband explains that it is the feast of San Galeone, so no work is being done, and says that he has arranged to sell the vat for five lily-florins. Peronella counters that she has already sold it for seven to an honest buyer who came inside to inspect it just as her husband returned. She presents herself as a better trader than her husband, despite her claim that she has scarcely been outside the door. The husband accepts her account, sends away the buyer he had brought, and directs her supposed purchaser to settle with him instead.

That supposed purchaser is Giannello, still hidden in the vat. Having listened from inside, he recognizes that Peronella’s story has given him a way to emerge without being identified as her lover. He calls out as though he has heard nothing of the husband’s return and asks for the woman with whom he made the bargain. When the husband answers, Giannello treats him as the seller and raises a practical objection: the vat is sound, but its interior is encrusted and must be cleaned before he will accept it. The complaint gives the husband a task that will keep him occupied and makes Giannello’s presence in the vessel seem part of an ordinary transaction.

Scraping, Concealment, and Departure

The husband agrees to clean the vat. He puts down his tools, takes off his coat, asks for a light and a scraper, and climbs inside to remove the hard residue. Peronella puts her head and one arm into the vat and directs him to the places he has missed. Her position blocks the opening from view while she appears to supervise the cleaning; Giannello uses the cover to resume intimacy with her as the husband works inside the vessel. The episode’s comic reversal rests on the husband’s literal labour: he cleans the hiding place while accepting the fiction that his wife has sold it to a stranger.

When the scraping is finished, Peronella withdraws her head and the husband comes out. Giannello inspects the vat, declares himself satisfied, pays the seven florins, and has it carried to his own house. The sale that began as Peronella’s improvised excuse is completed as a plausible exchange, and the lover leaves with the object that concealed him. Giannello is not shown facing a later reckoning; the tale ends with the payment and removal of the vat.

Narrative Function

Giannello’s role is defined by the contrast between his vulnerable position and the household’s misread appearances. He enters secretly, hides when discovery threatens, and then performs the part of a buyer when Peronella’s lie creates an opening. The decisive invention is hers, but his ability to listen, emerge at the right moment, and supply a credible complaint makes the scheme hold together. The vat links those stages: it is a cumbersome household object, a hiding place, a worksite, and the purchased good that carries the secret out of the house. The tale makes the husband’s trust and his own labour instruments of concealment, while Giannello’s successful departure confirms the practical force of the lovers’ improvised cooperation.