The ‘Ghibelline’ Narrator in the Decameron

In the sixth story of the last day of the DECAMERON Fiammetta recounts an act of generosity performed by Charles I of Anjou. She tells how the Ghibellines were driven out of Florence as a result of Charles's victory over Manfred in 1266, and how one of them, Neri degli Uberti, left the city for the Kingdom of Naples. There Charles fell in love with one of Neri's two daughters, but was persuaded by Guy de Montfort not to act foolishly, and finally provided rich dowries and noble husbands for both daughters. ‘Così adunque il magnifico re operò’, concludes Fiammetta, ‘il nobile cavaliere altamente premiando, l'amate giovinette laudevolmente onorando e se medesimo fortemente vincendo’. This story meets with approval from all but one of her companions: ‘Venuta era la Fiammetta al fin della sua novella, e commendata era stata molto la virile magnificenzia del re Carlo, quantunque alcuna, che quivi era ghibellina, commendar nol volesse’ (x, 7, 2). Pampinea next tells a story concerning Peter III of Aragon, husband of Manfred's daughter Constance and a political enemy of Charles. The tale cancerns a girl whose hopeless love far King Peter causes her to fall ill; but the King restores her to health by visiting her and moreover provides her with a husband and a dowry. Not surprisingly, Pampinea's tale is praised more highly by the ‘ghibellina’ than by any of the others (x, 8, 2)

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