Madam Dianora—Messer Ansaldo

Madam Dianora and Messer Ansaldo Gradense are joined first by Ansaldo’s persistent, unreturned courtship and then by a reversal in which an extraordinary garden makes her promise seem binding. The decisive change comes when her husband, Gilberto, permits her to honor that promise: Ansaldo responds not by claiming her, but by protecting her honor, turning a contest over desire into an exchange of generosity and respect.

Identity and Initial Courtship

In Udine, Madam Dianora is a fair and noble woman married to Gilberto, a wealthy gentleman described as debonair and easygoing. Messer Ansaldo Gradense is a noble baron of high standing, celebrated for prowess and courtesy. He falls passionately in love with her and repeatedly sends messages, trying to win her affection. Dianora does not return his advances; his persistence wears on her rather than persuading her. Their relationship begins, therefore, not as a mutual romance but as an imbalance between his unrelenting desire and her refusal.

Dianora seeks to end that pursuit without immediately exposing it to her husband or family. She tells Ansaldo’s intermediary that she might believe his professions if he accomplished something that could testify to the strength of his love. Her condition is a garden near Udine, made in January to resemble May, with green grass, flowers, and trees in full leaf. She presents the feat as the measure of his devotion, but also warns that if he cannot accomplish it, he must stop sending her messages; should he continue, she will complain to her husband and relatives. The challenge gives her a means to set a boundary while keeping the courtship concealed, though its terms will soon place her under a new pressure.

The Garden and the Promise

Messer Ansaldo recognizes the demand as nearly impossible and understands that Dianora has chosen it to deprive him of hope. He nevertheless searches widely for help, asking in different places whether anyone can advise him. At last, a practitioner offers to produce the garden through necromantic art in return for a great payment. Ansaldo agrees, and waits for the appointed time.

The night before the calends of January, while the cold is severe and everything is covered with snow and ice, the practitioner works in a meadow adjoining the city. By morning it appears as a flourishing garden, with grass, trees, and fruits of every kind. Ansaldo has the finest flowers and fruits gathered and secretly sent to Dianora. The gift is both proof of his effort and a renewed appeal: he reminds her that her promise was sworn and urges her to fulfill it as a loyal woman. The scene reverses the original balance. Dianora had set a condition intended to extinguish Ansaldo’s hopes; his success instead makes her fear that she has become bound to give him what she had refused.

Dianora goes with other women to see the garden and marvels at it, but its beauty does not bring her happiness. She regrets the promise and returns home deeply distressed. Her anguish becomes visible enough that Gilberto asks what troubles her. After initially remaining silent out of shame, she tells him the whole course of events. Thus the private courtship becomes a matter between husband and wife, and the next stage of her relationship with Ansaldo depends on Gilberto’s response as well as on her own promise.

Gilberto’s Permission and Dianora’s Distress

Gilberto is first angered, but then considers Dianora’s intention and chooses what the story describes as better judgment. He rebukes her for listening to Ansaldo’s messages and entering into an arrangement concerning her chastity, observing that words received through the ears can have more power than people imagine, and that lovers can make what seems impossible possible. Yet he does not treat her mistake as proof of disloyalty. Knowing what he takes to be the purity of her intention, he offers to release her from the promise through his consent.

His permission is a grave concession rather than an easy approval. He tells Dianora to go to Ansaldo and try to secure release from the obligation while preserving her chastity; only if she cannot find another way is she to yield her body for this one occasion, not her soul. Dianora weeps and refuses to accept such a favor from her husband, but he insists. Her journey to Ansaldo’s house is therefore not presented as the fulfillment of an independently chosen desire. She goes at Gilberto’s command, accompanied by two serving-men and a chamberwoman, and the distinction between her outward act and her inward wishes is central to what Ansaldo learns there.

Ansaldo’s Refusal and the Changed Relationship

Ansaldo is astonished when Dianora arrives. He summons the necromancer so that the man who made the garden can witness the reward his skill has supposedly won, then receives Dianora with reverence and brings her into a chamber. Before seeking anything from her, however, he asks her to explain why she has come at that hour and with that company. Dianora tells him plainly that neither love for him nor a pledged faith has brought her there: she has come because her husband commanded it, and by that command is prepared to do his pleasure.

That explanation changes Ansaldo’s conduct. Moved by Gilberto’s generosity, he abandons the desire that had driven his repeated pursuit. He says Dianora must not be made the means by which he dishonors a husband who has shown compassion toward his love. While she remains under his roof, he will treat her as a sister; she is free to leave when she wishes. He asks her to thank Gilberto on his behalf and offers himself thereafter as both brother and servant. The garden has given Ansaldo the opportunity he demanded, but Gilberto’s response makes claiming Dianora intolerable to him. The would-be lover instead recognizes the moral weight of the trust placed in his hands.

Dianora leaves under honorable escort and returns to Gilberto with Ansaldo’s message. The encounter establishes a close and loyal friendship between the two men, while changing Dianora’s connection with Ansaldo from unwanted courtship to an acknowledged bond of respect. The necromancer, seeing Gilberto’s liberality with his honor and Ansaldo’s restraint in love, likewise declares that he will be generous with his fee. The conclusion extends the story’s exchange of generosity beyond the original triangle: each person who might have insisted on a claim instead relinquishes something.

Narrative Significance

The relationship is structured around successive tests of what love entitles a person to demand. Dianora’s impossible condition initially makes Ansaldo’s devotion appear measurable through labor, expense, and a marvel produced in winter. Yet the garden does not establish that she loves him, and her promise does not erase her reluctance. When Gilberto grants her permission, the final test is no longer whether Ansaldo can obtain the promised reward, but whether he can recognize that the gift was made under his rival’s authority and at Dianora’s distress.

The resolution recasts courtesy as restraint. Ansaldo’s reputation for prowess and courtesy is first expressed through the feat that fulfills Dianora’s challenge; its more consequential expression is his decision not to use that success against her. Gilberto’s generosity makes that restraint possible, Dianora’s disclosure allows the truth of her arrival to be known, and Ansaldo answers both with a refusal to exploit the situation. Their relationship ends not in an illicit union but in kinship language and friendship, making mutual respect—not possession—the story’s final measure of love.