Page 88 - SUMMARIES OF GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO’S DECAMEON : A Visionary Journey In 100 Stories And 100 Etchings By Petru Russu

Fra Alberto and Lisetta

In Venice, a city of masks and mischief, a man named Berto della Massa
arrives with a past so tarnished he must reinvent himself entirely. He dons
the robes of a Franciscan friar and becomes Fra Alberto, a figure of piety,
humility, and apparent holiness. His sermons are tearful, his devotion

theatrical, and the citizens, charmed by his performance, entrust him with
their souls and their secrets.

Among his admirers is Madonna Lisetta da Ca’ Quirino, a merchant’s

wife whose vanity rivals her beauty. She boasts that even the angels in
heaven must admire her face. Fra Alberto, sensing opportunity, concocts
a celestial seduction: he tells Lisetta that the Angel Gabriel is hopelessly
in love with her and wishes to visit her in human form. Naturally, Gabriel

would need a vessel, and who better than Fra Alberto himself?

Lisetta, flattered beyond reason, agrees. Thus begins a series of clandestine
visits, with Fra Alberto dressed in white robes and golden wings, playing the

part of the angel with divine enthusiasm. Their affair continues until Lisetta,
unable to contain her pride, brags to a friend about her heavenly lover. Word
spreads like wildfire, and her kinsmen, scandalized, lay a trap.

Fra Alberto, realizing he’s been discovered, flees Lisetta’s house by leaping
from a window into a canal. Soaked and desperate, he seeks refuge with a
A CARNIVAL OF ECSTATIC poor man who agrees to hide him, for a price. The next day, the man dresses
ENTANGLEMENT AND Fra Alberto as a wild man, covers him in honey and feathers, and parades him
ASCENDANT IRONY, THE PIECE
LIFTS DECEPTION INTO DIVINE through the piazza on a leash, claiming he’s the Angel Gabriel for hire.
ABSURDITY, WHERE ANGELIC
MASKS CRUMBLE BENEATH THE The crowd, delighted and outraged, recognizes the disgraced friar. He is beaten,
WEIGHT OF VANITY AND DESIRE, mocked, and finally dragged back to his monastery, where he is locked away in a
AND DISGRACE FLOWERS IN
JUBILANT SPECTACLE. cell, his days of divine impersonation brought to a humiliating end.
DECAMERON 86 87