Piccarda Character Analysis in The Decameron

Monna Piccarda is a widow and the love interest of the Provost in Emilia’s eighth tale (VIII, 4). She is young, lovely, and clever. When the Provost won’t accept her gentle “no” for an answer, she and her brothers trick him into sleeping with her servant, Cuitazza. She demonstrates how an intelligent and shrewd person (even a woman) can treat people according to their just desserts without engaging in dishonorable conduct. Like Francesca de’ Lazzari (IX, 1) she demonstrates how a clever woman can rid herself of an unwanted lover; examples of the wrong way to do this include Elena (VIII, 7) and Dianora (X, 5).

Piccarda Quotes in The Decameron

The The Decameron quotes below are all either spoken by Piccarda or refer to Piccarda. 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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“Heaven be praised!” said the Provost, who could scarce contain his joy. “To tell you the truth, madam, I am amazed that you should have held out for so long, seeing that this has never happened to me with any woman before. And in fact, I have sometimes had occasion to reflect, that if women were made of silver you couldn’t turn them into coins, as they bend too easily. But no more of this, when and where can we be together?”

Related Characters: Provost (speaker), Emilia, Piccarda

Page Number and Citation: 571

Explanation and Analysis:

Piccarda Character Timeline in The Decameron

The timeline below shows where the character Piccarda appears in The Decameron. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Emilia’s story, like Panfilo’s, describes a lustful cleric. Monna Piccarda, a young widow of noble birth, lives near Fiesole’s main church with her two brothers.... (full context)

Monna Piccarda very politely tries to appeal to his sense of virtue rather than reject his advances... (full context)

Monna Piccarda has an old, unattractive maid called Cuitazza. Offering to give her the gift of a... (full context)

...wine, the brothers say they want to show him something. They take him to Monna Piccarda’s room, where the light from their torches reveals the Provost, so spent from his furious... (full context)