Madam Dianora—Gilberto

Madam Dianora and Gilberto’s marriage is tested by an impossible bargain: to rid herself of Messer Ansaldo Gradense’s pursuit, Dianora promises him her favor if he can produce a May-like garden in January. When he succeeds, Gilberto must choose between anger at his wife’s promise and confidence in her intentions. He rebukes her for making the bargain, yet ultimately puts her welfare and honor ahead of his own claim to them. His willingness to let her go to Ansaldo, and Ansaldo’s decision not to take advantage of that permission, turn a threatened breach of marriage into a demonstration of generosity.

Marriage and the Courtship

Dianora is a noble and beautiful lady of Udine, married to Gilberto, a wealthy gentleman whom the story describes as debonair and easy of disposition. Messer Ansaldo Gradense, a baron of high standing and renowned for prowess and courtesy, falls passionately in love with her. He repeatedly sends messages asking for her love, but she refuses him. His persistence, despite her denials, becomes the problem the married couple must confront: Dianora seeks a way to end his importunity without submitting to it or exposing his pursuit to her husband and family.

She tells Ansaldo’s intermediary that she might be persuaded of the sincerity of his love if he could fulfill a condition she considers impossible. For the coming January, he must create near the city a garden as green and flourishing as one in May, complete with grass, flowers, and trees in full leaf. If he cannot, he must cease sending messages; if he continues to press her, she will disclose his pursuit to her husband and kin. The condition is meant to close off the courtship, not invite it forward. Yet by setting a test and offering a promise in return, Dianora creates an obligation that later weighs on her marriage.

The Garden and Dianora’s Promise

Messer Ansaldo does not dismiss the demand as hopeless. He searches for help and agrees to pay a large sum to a man who claims he can produce the garden through necromantic art. On the night before the January calends, while cold, snow, and ice prevail, the man works in a meadow beside the city. By morning, it appears to be a garden in full abundance, with grass, leafy trees, fruits, and flowers. Ansaldo sends Dianora the finest fruits and flowers and invites her to see the marvel, reminding her of the promise she made.

Dianora regrets her promise when she sees the offerings and hears reports of the garden, but she also goes to view it with many other ladies. The extraordinary result makes the bargain concrete: what she had treated as an impossible condition has been fulfilled, and she now fears the consequence. Her distress becomes visible to Gilberto. After she has long kept silent out of shame, he presses her to explain; she eventually tells him the whole story. The marriage is therefore tested not by a concealed affair, but by a promise Dianora made while trying to deter an unwanted suitor and then disclosed to her husband.

Gilberto’s Rebuke and Consent

Gilberto is at first angry. He tells Dianora that a prudent and virtuous woman should not listen to such messages or bargain over her chastity, whatever the condition. In his view, she was wrong both to hear Ansaldo’s proposal and to enter into terms with him. The rebuke establishes that Gilberto does not treat her promise as an ordinary matter of courtly negotiation: it puts their marriage and her sexual fidelity at stake.

But he also believes her intention was pure. Once he has considered the circumstances and mastered his anger, he does not answer her distress with punishment or demand that she face the promise alone. Instead, he directs her to go to Ansaldo and try to be released from it while preserving her chastity. If she cannot obtain that release, he says, she must yield her body for this once, though not her soul. The concession is severe, and the story does not present it as carefree approval. Gilberto fears that Ansaldo, if cheated, might make them suffer, and says that concern for his wife’s hardship, rather than his own honor, leads him to allow the visit. He is prepared to bear the cost of keeping faith with the promise Dianora made, even while condemning the decision that produced it.

A Test of Generosity

At daybreak Dianora goes to Ansaldo’s house with two serving men and a chamberwoman. She tells him plainly that she comes neither from love for him nor from a promise freely renewed: her husband has commanded her to come, out of compassion for Ansaldo’s suffering, and she is prepared to do his pleasure. Gilberto’s consent thus reaches Ansaldo through Dianora’s account of it. What might have been taken as an opportunity to possess her instead becomes evidence of the husband’s extraordinary generosity.

Ansaldo is moved by that generosity. He receives Dianora with respect, does not pursue the sexual reward she has offered, and tells her she may depart when she wishes, asking only that she convey her thanks to Gilberto. He offers to be her brother and servant in future. Gilberto’s decision does not simply settle a private dispute between spouses; it changes the other man’s response. By placing compassion for Ansaldo’s love above his own honor, Gilberto elicits restraint rather than possession. Dianora’s marital fidelity is put at risk by the bargain, but the two men’s actions prevent that risk from becoming its fulfillment.

The Relationship’s Significance

The episode holds together two judgments about Gilberto. He is a husband with authority to criticize Dianora’s conduct and direct her next action; his permission also exposes the unequal pressures within the situation, since her promise has been made to another man and her husband determines how she should answer it. At the same time, he listens to her explanation, accepts the purity of her intent, and chooses a course that could cost him his honor rather than leave her to bear the danger alone. His response is neither simple approval nor jealous retaliation.

The relationship’s decisive movement is from disclosure to trust, and from trust to an unexpected act of restraint. Dianora’s shame and fear bring the matter into the marriage; Gilberto’s confidence in her intentions makes it possible for her to seek release without concealment. Then his generosity changes Ansaldo’s understanding of what is owed. The story presents the marriage as the moral center of the encounter: its test is not whether Dianora can fulfill the impossible garden’s promise, but whether Gilberto can respond to her mistake without reducing her to it. His compassion gives Ansaldo a reason to relinquish the claim, preserving Dianora’s chastity and leaving the couple’s bond intact.