Pietro Boccamazza and Agnolella's Elopement and Marriage

Pietro Boccamazza and Agnolella's Elopement and Marriage turns a romance blocked by family rank into a test of whether shared desire can survive danger, separation, and social resistance. Pietro, a young man from a distinguished Roman family, and Agnolella, the beautiful daughter of a commoner, secretly become husband and wife before fleeing together. Their journey toward Anagni is interrupted by an attack that strands them apart in a forest; they are reunited at a castle, where a noblewoman helps them marry openly and makes peace with Pietro’s family possible.

Unequal Standing and a Secret Marriage

The story, told by Elisa on the Fifth Day, begins in Rome in the story of Titus and Gisippus. Pietro belongs to a highly respected family, while Agnolella is the daughter of Gigliuozzo Saullo, a plebeian whom the Romans nevertheless hold dear. The difference in their social positions is central to the obstacle they face: Pietro’s relatives object as soon as they learn that he wants to marry her. They warn Agnolella’s father not to take Pietro’s proposal seriously, threatening that they will otherwise cease to regard him as a friend or kinsman.

Pietro’s attachment is not merely a private courtship. After he and Agnolella have come to love one another, he asks to marry her, and the opposition of his family closes the path by which he had hoped to achieve that aim. He is so distressed that he seems close to death from grief. If Agnolella’s father had consented, Pietro would have married her despite his relatives’ wishes. Once an intermediary has established that Agnolella also wants to act, the lovers agree to flee together. Their decision makes their mutual consent plain, while also exposing how little room they believe remains for their relationship within the arrangements their families will accept.

Before leaving, they secretly become husband and wife, determined that nothing but death should part them. This private union precedes both their flight and any public celebration: it expresses their commitment, but it does not yet settle the conflict with Pietro’s family or provide them a secure life together. Their departure is hurried. They rise early and ride toward Anagni, where Pietro has trusted friends, without time to hold a wedding feast because they fear pursuit.

The Attack and Their Separation

The escape falters because Pietro does not know the road well. About eight miles from Rome in the story of Titus and Gisippus, the pair take a left-hand path instead of the right one. After riding roughly two miles farther, they approach a small castle. A dozen footmen rush out as soon as they are seen. Agnolella recognizes the danger and turns away, escaping into the woods; Pietro is taken by the attackers. Their flight, planned as a joint movement away from family control, abruptly becomes two solitary struggles to survive and find shelter.

After getting free, Pietro retrieves his belongings and tries to follow the way he saw Agnolella take. He finds neither her nor a clear path, and sees no tracks to guide him. He searches the forest, crying out and calling for her, but fears to return and does not know where to go forward. He is also afraid that wild animals may kill Agnolella. As the day passes, hunger, exhaustion, and fear wear him down. At night he ties his mount to a great oak and climbs into the tree to avoid being devoured while he sleeps.

Agnolella, meanwhile, has no knowledge of Pietro’s fate. Her mount carries her deeper into the wood until she can no longer tell where she entered it. She wanders all day, sometimes stopping to listen, sometimes continuing onward, weeping and calling for her lost companion. Toward evening she finds a small path that leads to a distant house. Its elderly occupants explain that she is more than a dozen miles from Anagni and too far from any other lodging to reach it before dark. They agree to shelter her, but warn that dangerous groups travel through the area and that they cannot protect her if anyone tries to harm her. Her refuge is therefore precarious, unlike the protection the lovers had hoped to find among Pietro’s friends.

Separate Routes to Shelter and Reunion

The forest ordeal continues through the night. Wolves surround Pietro’s mount, which breaks its bridle and fights them with its teeth and hooves before they bring it down and devour it. Pietro watches from the oak, losing the companion and practical support he had relied upon. At daybreak he sees a large fire about a mile away. He climbs down and reaches shepherds warming themselves and eating; they take pity on him, give him food, and allow him to warm himself. When he explains his misadventure, they tell him of a castle about three miles away, belonging to Lionello di Campodifiore, whose lady is staying there. Two shepherds accompany him.

Agnolella’s route has brought her to that same castle. Pietro arrives intending to ask for help searching the forest, but is summoned to the lady and finds Agnolella with her. Their reunion reverses the helplessness of their separation: each had spent the night without knowing whether the other had survived, and both are now safe under the protection of a household with the means to help them. Pietro is eager to embrace her but restrains himself out of respect for the lady. The reunion is not simply a happy interruption to danger; it gives their marriage dispute a new setting and an influential witness.

The castle’s lady first reproves Pietro for acting against his relatives’ wishes. She then recognizes that he and Agnolella are determined to be together and that their desire to marry is mutual. In her judgment, their escape from the dangers of the forest—the threat of the gallows for one and a spear-thrust for the other, as well as the wild animals—makes their survival feel like providential confirmation of their wish. Rather than prolong a conflict she regards as futile, she agrees that they should become husband and wife and offers to pay for their wedding at Lionello’s expense. She also undertakes to reconcile Pietro with his family.

Marriage, Reconciliation, and the Relationship’s Resolution

Pietro and Agnolella marry at the castle, to Pietro’s great contentment and Agnolella’s still greater satisfaction. Their ceremony converts the secret union formed before their flight into a public marriage witnessed and supported by the castle’s household. The lady provides an honorable celebration as far as the mountain setting allows. The wedding is thus both a personal fulfillment and a practical resolution: the lovers no longer depend solely on secrecy, and the lady’s promise gives them a route back into family society.

After several days, the newlyweds ride back to Rome in the story of Titus and Gisippus under a good escort, accompanied by the lady. Pietro’s relatives are still deeply angry about what he has done, so the wedding does not immediately erase their opposition. The lady, however, succeeds in making peace between Pietro and his family. Pietro and Agnolella then live together in peace and pleasure into old age. Their ending gives the couple a durable outcome rather than a momentary escape: the story begins with family authority preventing their marriage, passes through a separation that nearly destroys their hope, and closes with marriage recognized and conflict reconciled.

Narrative Significance

The relationship is shaped by several distinct forms of commitment. Pietro proposes marriage before flight; the lovers secretly establish themselves as husband and wife; the lady then arranges a witnessed wedding; and, finally, Pietro’s family is reconciled to the match. These stages distinguish private consent from public recognition and show how the story moves from a decision made against family wishes toward a settlement within the family order. The lovers do not abandon their intention, but their lasting security depends partly on an ally who can turn their choice into an accepted marriage.

The forest separates the pair physically just after they have chosen to leave together, making their attachment visible through parallel ordeals rather than through a prolonged contest between them. Agnolella’s wandering and Pietro’s night in the tree are distinct experiences, but both are marked by fear, uncertainty, and concern for the other. Their eventual reunion at the castle allows the narrative to bring private devotion, social rank, and communal assistance into the same scene. The conclusion preserves the lovers’ original resolve while transforming its consequences: what begins as a secret flight becomes a marriage celebrated with support, followed by reconciliation and a shared life into old age.