Things in the Decameron: How Objects Become Secular

Abstract

THINGS ARE EVERYWHERE IN THE DECAMERON . Melchizedek escapes Saladin’s trap with a tale of three rings (I.3); Andreuccio wins a ruby ring after a day of calamity (II.5); a lover’s heart is placed in a golden chalice (IV.1); another lover’s head is interred in a pot of basil (IV.5); a feather is said to be from the wings of the Angel Gabriel; coals are hailed as the relics of St. Lawrence (VI.10); a lover hides in a tub (VII.2); a cloak is used as a token of pledge (VIII.2); Calandrino and his friends go in search of a heliotrope (VIII.3); an abbess mistakes breeches for a veil (IX.2). Throughout the novelle, characters use objects to fashion and unfashion themselves, organize their finances and affections, reveal or conceal their hypocrisies, and shape or subvert their deepest desires. Even a human can become a thing: you can be objectified so much that you become an endlessly traded sexual commodity, as can—and has—been argued for the silent Alatiel (II.7). She is described— onmultiple occasions—as a thing (la disiderata cosa,maravigliosa cosa, cosamortale).