Messer Ansaldo Gradense

Messer Ansaldo Gradense’s pursuit of Madam Dianora reaches its decisive turn not through possession but through restraint: after Gilberto permits his wife to honor her promise, Ansaldo releases her from it, answering generosity with generosity of his own.

Identity and Setting

In Udine, in the cold country of Friuli, Ansaldo is introduced as a noble baron, distinguished by high rank, prowess, and courtesy. His standing and reputation make him a familiar figure of public esteem, while his private conduct is initially governed by an ardent attachment to Madam Dianora, the wife of the wealthy and easygoing Gilberto. Ansaldo repeatedly sends messages seeking Dianora’s love, but she refuses him; his devotion persists even when her refusals give him no reason to expect success.

Dianora eventually seeks to end his importunities by setting a condition she considers impossible: Ansaldo must provide, in January, a garden near Udine as green and flourishing as one in May. She intends the demand to extinguish his hope and warns that further pursuit may force her to disclose his approaches to her husband and relatives. Ansaldo understands that the challenge is designed to defeat him, yet accepts it as a test of whether his love can be proved. His response sets the story’s central contrast in motion: a demand meant to close the affair instead gives him an opportunity to act on the very devotion that has so far taken the form of persistent solicitation.

The Winter Garden

Ansaldo treats Dianora’s condition as a test to be met, though he recognizes that she has made it because she expects it to be impossible. He sends inquiries to various parts of the world, seeking someone able to help. At last he finds a practitioner who promises, for a great payment, to create the garden by necromantic art. Ansaldo agrees to the cost and waits for the appointed time, turning a challenge intended to end his pursuit into a project requiring both resolve and considerable expenditure.

The appointed night falls at the beginning of January, in extreme cold, with everything covered in snow and ice. The night before the first of the month, the practitioner works in a meadow beside Udine. By morning it appears as a flourishing garden, with grass, trees, and fruits of every kind. The contrast is the point of the marvel: in the depth of winter, the landscape seems to have acquired May’s abundance, fulfilling Dianora’s demand in its precise terms.

Ansaldo views the garden with great gladness, has its finest fruits and fairest flowers gathered, and secretly sends them to Dianora. He invites her to see the place he has provided, presenting it as proof of his love and reminding her that she had pledged, even under oath, to fulfill his request if he succeeded. The gifts make the achievement tangible before she has seen the garden: the flowers and fruit carry the impossible season from the meadow into her household.

Dianora has already begun to regret her promise when she sees the gifts and hears reports of the garden’s miraculous appearance. Nevertheless, curiosity leads her to visit it with many other women of the city. She admires it with evident wonder, then returns home deeply distressed by what she believes herself bound to do. Her distress is difficult to conceal, and Gilberto presses her to explain it. After remaining silent for a long while out of shame, she tells him the whole story, including her condition, Ansaldo’s success, and the promise she made.

The Promise Released

Gilberto initially reacts with anger when Dianora confesses, but reflection changes his response. He judges that she was wrong to listen to Ansaldo’s messages and bargain over her chastity, yet believes her intention was pure: she had set what she considered an impossible condition to end the pursuit. He then tells her to go to Ansaldo and seek release from her promise while preserving her chastity if she can. Dianora weeps and resists accepting this extraordinary permission, but Gilberto insists. His decision turns the test of Ansaldo’s love into a test of his own honor and generosity.

At daybreak, Dianora goes to Ansaldo’s house accompanied by two servants and a chamberwoman. Ansaldo is astonished by her arrival and calls the practitioner to witness what his skill has won him. But when Dianora explains that she comes not from love or a freely pledged faith, but because her husband has sent her, Ansaldo’s desire gives way to compassion. He refuses to take advantage of Gilberto’s willingness to risk his own honor, receives Dianora with reverence, and offers her the respect he would show a sister. She may leave whenever she wishes; he asks only that she thank Gilberto and regard him henceforth as a brother and servant.

Dianora returns safely under honorable escort and recounts what happened. The encounter transforms the rivalry between the two men: Gilberto and Ansaldo form a close and loyal friendship, not through possession of Dianora but through their mutual response to the promise. Ansaldo’s decisive act is to relinquish the claim his labor and the winter garden had apparently earned. The story thus makes his courtesy more than a public reputation: when the promised reward is placed within his reach, he chooses compassion over advantage.

The Sorcerer’s Final Gesture

The exchange of generosity extends beyond the two men. Ansaldo had promised the practitioner a great fee for making the garden, but after witnessing Gilberto’s willingness to risk his honor and Ansaldo’s refusal to exploit that sacrifice, the practitioner also declines his payment. He recognizes that such generosity deserves a like response and that keeping the fee would serve Ansaldo poorly. The garden’s marvel is therefore answered by a human chain of relinquishments: Dianora is released from her pledge, Ansaldo abandons the reward he expected, and the practitioner gives up his agreed compensation. The story closes this sequence by making Ansaldo’s restraint contagious, turning an extravagant proof of desire into a reciprocal bond of honor.