The company’s flight from plague-stricken Florence

The company’s flight from plague-stricken Florence is a deliberate act of self-preservation: confronted with death, fear, and the breakdown of civic order, the ladies leave the city for the countryside and invite three young men to accompany them. The journey carries them from a place where ordinary routines have become a daily reminder of danger to a secluded palace prepared for their arrival.

Causes and Justification

Pampinea argues that preserving one’s life is a natural right, and that people may take reasonable measures to defend it without wronging others. The ladies’ continued presence in Florence, she says, has become a form of helpless witnessing. They see dead bodies carried to burial, hear reports of the dying, and encounter exiles roaming freely because the public authorities charged with enforcing the laws are themselves dead or ill. Men who call themselves pickmen ride about and mock the women’s distress in ribald songs.

The danger reaches beyond the streets into the home. Pampinea describes returning to a household emptied by death, with only a serving-maid left, and feeling fear wherever she goes as the departed seem to haunt the rooms. The ladies are not safer simply because they are women, she insists: the pestilence has already carried off young men and women of every quality. Staying in the city offers no protection, while departure may provide a way to escape some of the dangers through which others have already perished.

Pampinea proposes a quiet move to the country, where each woman has places available. There, the group can take pleasure and diversion without exceeding the bounds of reason. Her picture of the countryside contrasts green hills and plains, ripening fields, many kinds of trees, open sky, and fresher air with Florence’s empty walls. Although country people also die of the disease, she argues, fewer houses and inhabitants make its effects less distressing than in the crowded city.

Decision and Companions

When the ladies encounter three young men, Pampinea welcomes the coincidence as favorable and suggests that they could serve as guides and companions. Neifile raises a concern: the young men are in love with some of the ladies, and their inclusion could expose everyone to scandal or blame, even if neither party behaves wrongly. Filomena answers that such criticism need not govern their choice. If the women act honestly and their consciences are clear, she argues, God and the truth will defend them.

The other ladies accept Filomena’s position. Pampinea approaches the young men on the group’s behalf, explains their plan, and asks them to join in a pure and brotherly spirit. At first they think the invitation is a jest; once they understand it is serious, they gladly agree and begin arranging what they need for the journey. The expedition is thus neither an accidental scattering nor an escape undertaken alone: it is a considered undertaking, shaped by concerns about safety, propriety, and mutual assistance.

The Journey and Arrival

At daybreak on Wednesday, after provisions have been readied and sent ahead, the ladies depart Florence with some of their waiting-women. The three young men travel with an equal number of their servants. They go only two short miles before reaching the appointed destination: a small hill set back from the highway, green with shrubs and plants, crowned by a palace.

The house offers a striking contrast to the city they have left. It has a spacious courtyard, galleries, halls, and attractive bedrooms decorated with cheerful paintings; lawns and gardens surround it, and wells provide very cold water. Its cellars hold fine wines, described as better suited to curious drinkers than to sober, modest ladies. The newcomers find the palace swept, the beds made, and the rooms strewn with the flowers available in that season and with rushes. Their retreat has been prepared not merely as shelter, but as a place where a safer and more ordered common life can begin.