Stecchi

Stecchi is a Florentine performer whose skill in impersonation helps carry Martellino into a crowded cathedral at Treviso. In the episode, he acts first as an accomplice in a calculated performance of pity, then as a frightened bystander when the performance turns against its makers. His part shows how quickly a theatrical disguise can win passage through a crowd—and how quickly that same crowd can become dangerous.

Identity and occupation

Stecchi travels with Martellino and Marchese, two fellow Florentines who, like him, visit the courts of princes and lords. The trio entertain spectators by disguising themselves and imitating other people through unusual movements and grimaces. Their work depends on making the body appear to be someone else’s: at Treviso, that practiced art becomes a means of entering a church packed with people gathered around the body of Arrigo of Treviso, whom the townspeople have proclaimed a saint.

The staged entrance

The three have never been to Treviso before. Hearing that the cathedral is crowded and guarded, Marchese doubts they can get near the saint’s body. Martellino proposes to feign a crippling illness, with Stecchi and Marchese supporting him on either side as if he cannot walk unaided. The arrangement turns the crowd’s expected compassion into their passage through it.

At a secluded spot, Martellino contorts his hands, limbs, face, and eyes until he looks, to those who see him, as though he is genuinely palsied. Stecchi takes one side and Marchese the other. Together they advance with an appearance of deep concern, asking people to make room for the sake of God. The crowd yields, crying for a way to be opened, and the three reach Arrigo of Treviso’s body. There, attendants lift Martellino onto it in the hope that he will be healed.

Exposure and reversal

Martellino gradually pretends to recover, extending a finger, then a hand and an arm, before straightening his whole body. The onlookers take the performance as a miracle and praise the saint. But a Florentine recognizes Martellino and tells nearby Trevisans that he was never disabled and is skilled at impersonation. The crowd’s interpretation reverses at once: what had looked like healing becomes, to them, mockery of the saint.

The crowd pulls Martellino down, tears his clothes, and beats him. Stecchi and Marchese see that matters have turned against them, but fear for themselves and do not come to his aid. Instead, they cry out with the crowd for Martellino to be put to death. Their earlier performance of solidarity with him gives way to self-preservation in public view.

Stecchi’s role in the escape

Marchese finds a way to get the officers outside the church involved. He tells the commander of the provost’s men that a rogue inside has stolen his purse, claiming it held a hundred gold florins. The officers push through the crowd and drag the battered Martellino away to the palace. Stecchi is not credited with devising or carrying out this rescue; the account assigns that intervention to Marchese. His documented role ends with the contrast between the two accomplices’ reactions: while Marchese risks a quick deception to remove Martellino from immediate danger, Stecchi has joined the attackers’ cries.