Santa Maria Novella Church

Santa Maria Novella Church provides the landmark and immediate setting for a night-time deception in the story of Master Simone. The church’s surroundings—especially the newly made tombs outside it and the adjacent piazza—turn a place associated with religious burial into a stage for Buffalmacco and Bruno’s practical joke on a credulous physician.

Setting and surroundings

The story places the tombs just outside Santa Maria Novella Church. Master Simone is instructed to wait on one of these raised tombs at the season of the first sleep, dressed in a fine gown for what he believes will be an impressive introduction to a company. The church’s piazza is close enough to serve as the next part of the staged encounter: Buffalmacco capers there in a horned mask and an inside-out black fur pelisse, making himself appear to be the supernatural beast the physician has been led to expect.

The night-time deception

Master Simone secretly leaves home and climbs onto a tomb, huddling against the cold as he waits. When Buffalmacco’s noisy performance frightens him, the physician nevertheless comes down and mounts the supposed beast, hoping to reach the marvels promised by Bruno and Buffalmacco. Buffalmacco carries him on all fours away from the piazza, then pulls him off beside a ditch used by nearby farmers for waste and manure, pitching him headfirst into it. The church grounds are thus the starting point for a trick that ends in humiliation elsewhere.

Narrative significance

The scene makes the location part of the mechanics of the prank: the tomb gives Master Simone a place to wait in expectation, while the piazza allows Buffalmacco to perform the frightening apparition before carrying him away. The contrast between the sacred setting and the painters’ calculated fraud sharpens the episode’s comedy. Santa Maria Novella is not described at length; its significance here is precise and local, as the recognizable landmark around which the deception is arranged.