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Salvestra
In Neifile’s fourth tale (IV, 8), Girolamo’s mother’s class consciousness makes her reject Girolamo’s love for the lowly Salvestra. When chiding and punishment fail, she resorts to subterfuge to send him away without breaking his heart. Neifile claims that Love is impervious to advice or interference at the beginning of the tale, and the failure of Girolamo’s mother to end his love illustrates this. She also demonstrates an arrogant belief that she knows more than Nature in her attempts to change the course of her son’s feelings.
Girolamo’s Mother Quotes in The Decameron
The The Decameron quotes below are all either spoken by Girolamo’s Mother or refer to Girolamo’s Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Day 4: Eighth Tale Quotes
Excellent ladies, to my way of thinking there are those who imagine that they know more than others when in fact they know less, and hence they presume to set this wisdom of theirs against not only the counsels of their fellow men, but also the laws of Nature…Now, there is nothing in the whole of Nature which is less susceptible to advice or interference than Love, whose qualities are such that it is far more likely to burn itself out of its own free will than to be quenched by deliberate pressure. [So I will] tell you a story about a lady who … sought to be wiser than she actually was, and by flaunting her cleverness in a matter that was beyond her competence, succeeded at one and the same time in driving both Love and life from the body of her son.
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Explanation and Analysis:
The Decameron values wit and wisdom as the crowning jewels of humanity, but Neifile’s tale of Girolamo and his mother shows how clever-seeming plans can backfire if they don’t consider the way the world works. This is because Girolamo’s mother tries to match her wits not with another person, but with love, despite its overwhelming power over the lives of humans. In this tale, love is associated with nature. In the Middle Ages, nature was a goddess-like figure who was responsible for procreation. Making babies made love equally the handmaid of God, who commanded humans to be fruitful and multiply Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum.
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Girolamo’s Mother Character Timeline in The Decameron
The timeline below shows where the character Girolamo’s Mother appears in The Decameron. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Day 4: Eighth Tale
...falls in love with a neighborhood girl. Salvestra is the daughter of a tailor, and Girolamo’s Mother scolds him for his inappropriate affection. Afraid that he will marry the poor girl secretly,...
(full context)
...try to send him to Paris to oversee business affairs there, but he categorically refuses. Girolamo’s Mother is livid, but she eventually gets him to agree to go for just one year,...
(full context)
