Giannole di Severino

Giannole di Severino is a young man whose pursuit of Agnesa drives a courtship plot into violence and then, through a discovery about her birth, into an unexpected family tragedy. He seeks to marry her, but, while acting without knowledge of their kinship, joins a rival in a covert attempt to reach her. The recognition that Agnesa is his sister overturns the meaning of his desire: the conflict ends not with his marriage to her but with his release and her marriage to Minghino.

Identity and Introduction

Giannole is introduced as one of two agreeable young men of equal worth and condition who love Agnesa, the ward of Giacomino da Pavia. Agnesa is fifteen, beautiful, virtuous, and well brought up. Both suitors would gladly take her as their wife, but their respective families do not permit the matches. The story thus establishes Giannole’s desire within a social arrangement where courtship and marriage are not his to decide alone; when an honorable route is denied, he turns toward private schemes.

His rival is Minghino di Mingole. Their feelings for Agnesa have already become so jealous and intense that they hate one another. Giannole’s pursuit is therefore personal, but it is also shaped by competition: each man tries to secure access without knowing what the other is doing. The plot’s account gives no indication that Giannole knows Agnesa’s origins, or that she has chosen him. Those silences matter when the rivalry ends in a discovery that makes the proposed marriage impossible.

A Covert Plan and an Armed Entry

Giannole recruits Crivello, a cheerful and obliging servant in Giacomino’s household, and confides his passion to him. Crivello cannot promise to persuade Agnesa; instead, he offers to bring Giannole to her when Giacomino is away. Giannole accepts this limited help. Their plan depends on an opportunity inside the household rather than on Agnesa’s agreement, and Giannole leaves the next step to his own judgment.

Minghino, meanwhile, has independently won the help of the maidservant, who has carried messages to Agnesa and, according to the tale, has nearly inflamed her with love for him. She promises to bring Minghino into the house when Giacomino goes out. Neither suitor knows of the other’s arrangement. When Giacomino is invited to supper, both helpers set their plans in motion, each expecting to open a path for a different man.

The two approaches converge that evening. Giannole and his companions wait near the house; Minghino and his armed companions take shelter at a neighbor’s. As the appointed hour arrives, Crivello gives the signal and opens the door. Giannole enters with two companions, finds Agnesa in the hall, and lays hands on her to carry her away. Her resistance is unmistakable: she struggles and cries out, as does the maid. The episode presents the attempted abduction not as a successful act of courtship but as force resisted by the woman it targets.

Rivalry Becomes Public Conflict

Minghino hears the cries and rushes in with his companions. Seeing Agnesa being dragged through the door, they draw their swords and attack Giannole’s party. Neighbors emerge with lights and weapons; they condemn Giannole’s conduct and support Minghino. The private contest for access to Agnesa has become a public disturbance, and the household’s neighbors, rather than either suitor alone, help determine its immediate outcome.

After a prolonged struggle, Minghino rescues Agnesa and returns her to Giacomino’s house. Before the disorder is fully over, officers of the town captain arrest many participants, including Giannole, Minghino, and Crivello. Giannole’s attempt has therefore produced neither marriage nor private possession of Agnesa: it ends with her restored to her guardian and its principal actors in prison. When Giacomino returns, he is deeply distressed, but, after learning that Agnesa was not at fault, he becomes somewhat appeased and resolves to arrange her marriage quickly so that a similar incident will not happen again.

Recognition and Reversal

The morning after the confrontation, the young men’s relatives appeal to Giacomino for mercy, asking him to consider their goodwill and to accept whatever amends he chooses. Giacomino responds with deference to their wishes. In explaining how Agnesa came into his care, he reveals that his old friend Guidotto da Cremona found her as a small child in a house plundered during the taking of Faenza, carried her away, and eventually entrusted her to Giacomino. Guidotto had charged him to marry her in due time and provide the dowry that had belonged to her family.

Guiglielmino da Medicina recognizes the connection between that account and Bernabuccio, a man present among the petitioners. Bernabuccio remembers that he lost a daughter of the right age in the same upheaval. A cross-shaped scar above Agnesa’s left ear supplies the identifying mark: Bernabuccio lifts her hair and finds it. He then recognizes her as his daughter, who had been left behind when her mother and the household fled and had been believed dead after the house burned. Agnesa first resists his embraces, then, persuaded by his account and moved by an unexplained instinct, weeps with him. Her return to her birth family transforms the preceding contest: Giannole has tried to take the woman who is, as the recognition establishes, his own sister.

Release and Narrative Role

The town captain learns that Giannole is Bernabuccio’s son and therefore Agnesa’s brother. He indulgently overlooks the offense and releases Giannole, Minghino, Crivello, and the other implicated men. The tale does not describe Giannole’s response to the revelation, nor does it say that he marries or otherwise remains with Agnesa. Its resolution is instead explicit about the altered family relationship and the new arrangement: after the town captain makes peace between the young rivals, Agnesa is given in marriage to Minghino, to the satisfaction of their kin, and the couple live together in peace and prosperity.

Giannole’s role is defined by the gap between what he intends and what the story reveals. His covert pursuit, undertaken amid competition and frustrated family permission, precipitates an attempted abduction and a public fight; the subsequent recognition makes the desired union impossible and recasts him as Agnesa’s brother. The ending resolves the immediate disorder through kinship recognition, clemency, and a different marriage, but leaves Giannole himself at the edge of the final outcome. His release closes the legal consequence of the episode, while Agnesa’s marriage to his rival marks the decisive turn in the plot.