Page 86 - Petru Russo | The 100 Days of Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

Fra Alberto and Lisetta

This novella unfolds as a satirical tale of deception, desire, and of the angel. Their trysts continue until Lisetta, boasting of her
public humiliation, exploring themes of hypocrisy, gullibility, and heavenly admirer, inadvertently reveals the affair to her kinsmen.

justice. Enraged, they plot to expose the monk.

Fra Alberto, a Franciscan monk, becomes infatuated with Lisetta, Fearing retribution, Fra Alberto flees Lisetta’s house, leaping from
a vain and beautiful young woman. To seduce her, he concocts an a window and seeking refuge with a poor man. The next day, the
elaborate lie, claiming that the Angel Gabriel is enamored of her man disguises Fra Alberto as a wild man and parades him through

and wishes to visit her in his celestial form. Fra Alberto convinces the piazza. Recognized and disgraced, Fra Alberto is apprehended
Lisetta that he, as the angel’s earthly vessel, must fulfill Gabriel’s by his fellow monks and imprisoned.
desires.

This tale concludes with Fra Alberto’s downfall serving as a
Lisetta, flattered by the divine attention, agrees to the cautionary example of the perils of hypocrisy and unchecked desire,
arrangement, and Fra Alberto visits her in secret under the guise leaving readers to reflect on the folly of deceit and vanity.

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