Page 142 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 142

“Brother Cipolla“



             This one’s set in Certaldo, the possible city of Boccaccio’s                 coal. When the peasants of the town gather to see Gabriel’s

              birth and the place where he lived after he retired. Because                feather, Cipolla sees dollar signs. He sends Guccio back to
              of its wealth, it was a popular place for a friar called Cipolla            get his relics so that they can begin and then collect money.
             (“Onion” in Italian) to go begging. And look out Friar Cipolla               Cipolla preaches dramatically and then opens the box to
              has red hair. He’s also illiterate, popular and a good speaker.             reveal the angel feather. Of course, he finds the lumps of
              Cipolla, like many friars of his time, would make a lot of                  coal and has to do some quick thinking. But Cipolla’s in his

              money by preaching fiery sermons outside of churches, and                   element. He regales them with a nonsense story about his
              showing relics usually body parts of the saints or pieces of                travels through fictitious lands. The point of telling such
              sacred items that were supposed to have healing powers.                     a lengthy story is to explain why he has coals rather than

              In this particular instance, Cipolla promises to show the                   an angel’s feather. Cipolla says that when he reached the
              people of the parish a feather from the Angel Gabriel that                  Holy Land, the Patriarch gave him many relics. One of them
              was left behind in Mary’s room after the Annunciation.                      was the feather. But he also has the coals over which St.
              Giovanni and Biagio, citizens of Certaldo, listen to Cipolla’s              Lawrence was roasted. Since the Patriarch placed each of
              speech and decide to expose him as a fraud. They break                      them in identical containers, Cipolla sometimes confuses

              into Cipolla’s room and steal the feather he plans to show                  them, as he’s done today. But God be praised! What a great
              in his next sermon. Cipolla had a servant called “Guccio                    mistake to make! The feast day of St. Lawrence is coming up,
              Porco” or “Guccio the Pig.” He’s a slob, but he keeps Cipolla               so how much cooler is it that Cipolla happened to bring the

              supplied with gossip. The friar tells Guccio to keep an eye                 coal? He invites the faithful to step forward to be blessed
              on his room, but Guccio’s busy trying to hook up with an                    (and give him some money). In return, they will “never
              ugly kitchen maid. So Giovanni and Biagio have an easy time                 be touched by fire without being burnt” for a whole year.
              of stealing the feather and replacing it with three lumps of                Cipolla makes a fortune and dupes the whole town.






















                                                                                                                                   “Brother Cipolla” retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
     DECAMERON      142                                                                                      <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/sixth-day-tenth-story>
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