Intro

The Decameron was written by Giovanni Boccaccio as a collection of stories to let the reader escape from their everyday lives, and more importantly, the black death. The Decameron is presented as a series of tales told by a group of people who have fled from Florence to get away from the Black Death.

Day 10, Story 9 is the tale of Saladin and Messer Torello, a healing story of friendship, hospitality, and hope, that starkly contrasts the real world atmosphere of the time brought about by the plague. This exhibit maps the paths of both the Saladin and Messer Torello as they meet, diverge, and then reunite once again.

Space

The Tale of Messer Torello is narrated by the traveler Panfilo who wishes to tell a story of friendship to the group. The story is set during Third Crusade (1189-1192), when the powers of Europe attempted to take back the holy lands in the Middle East. Saladin, Sultan of Babylon, disguises himself and heads to the West in hopes of gathering intel regarding the upcoming attacks.

A common theme towards the locations of the story is the relationship between wealth in the location (ie: silk gowns, castles), with the values of friendship. There are 2 points in the story where Saladin and Torello meet – Torello and Saladin first bond at Torello’s home near Pavia, then meet again at Saladin’s palace in Alexandria.

“the banquet was splendidly prepared. Water having been given to the hands, they were seated at table with the goodliest and most orderly observance and magnificently served with many viands, insomuch that, were the emperor himself come thither, it had been impossible to do him more honour”. (Boccaccio & Payne, p. 507) After Saladin and Torello first meet on the road, Torello brings the travelers back to his home where they are greeted with incredible warmth. Torello invites all his friends for an exquisite dinner and later provides beautiful gowns and other gifts to the Saladin. This is the birth of the friendship between Saladin and Torello and the tangible wealth in the space is reflective of the intangible wealth of their friendship.

“a very goodly and rich bed of mattresses, all, according to their usance, of velvet and cloth of gold and caused lay thereon a counterpoint curiously wrought in various figures with great pearls and jewels of great price (the which here in Italy was after esteemed an inestimable treasure) and two pillows such as sorted with a bed of that fashion …a gown of the Saracen fashion, the richest and goodliest thing that had ever been seen of any”. (Boccaccio & Payne, p. 512) Note that before this point Torello had been captured and taken as prisoner, and is worried for his wife. But once he reconnects with the Saladin, their environment changes to reflect their reunion. The narrator speaks of gold, velvet and a beautiful gown.

 

Digital Map

This map serves to give a sense of scale to the unlikely journeys of Messer Torello and Saladin. It tracks the divergent paths of both characters and their unlikely bonding experiences as they meet and enjoy each other’s company not just once, but also a second time miles away across the Mediterranean sea.

Note: (points of interest are marked out in bold lettering). 

The Journey of Messer Torello

Messer Torello, a well-off citizen of Pavia, Italy, meets a group of travelers on a road between Pavia and Milan. He shows these travelers great kindness and invites them to spend the night at his home to rest. He and his wife host an elaborate dinner, and afterwards even give gifts to the weary travelers (who remark on the extreme generosity of their hosts). A time later Torello leaves the city to join the crusade against the East. He journeys to Genoa on the coast of Italy and from there boards a ship and embarks to Acre to establish an attack.

In Acre, Torello is captured and brought to Alexandria as prisoner where he becomes a hawk trainer. By luck he is recognized by the Saladin and promptly freed and brought to Saladin’s home. Here Torello confesses his worries about his wife, as Torello has been gone for such a long time without communication. Through the use of a necromancer Saladin sends Torello back home to reconnect with his wife. He arrives in Pavia in disguise and heads to his wife’s wedding ceremony as she is planning to re-marry. At the wedding Torello shares a drink with his wife, and his identity is revealed by the ring she had given him being inside their shared cup.

The Journey of Saladin

Saladin and his disguised group of travelers are on the road between Pavia and Milan in hopes of gaining intel in the upcoming war. Here he meets with the stranger Messer Torello, who invites him and his friends to stay the night at Torello’s home. Here they are treated to an exquisite meal and are even offered fine gifts to take home with them. In the morning Saladin and his friends leave, and a time after, Saladin arrives back home in Alexandria.

Here, he comes across a hawk trainer and recognizes this man as Torello by his smile. He offers Torello niceties in the same way Torello had offered to him, and Torello reveals that he is worried about his wife who he has not seen in such a long time. Torello enlists the help of his necromancer, who uses his power to send Torello back to his home in Pavia.

 

Several points on the map are enhanced through the accompaniment of history objects. The dinner scene in Pavia is paired with an image of an inscribed, colored, Italian dish like the characters would have eaten from during their meal. Two scenes in Alexandria features objects – The first, Saladin’s arrival in Alexandria, contains a drawing of a map of Alexandria from 1570. The detailed map depicts the encompassing wall of Alexandria and inside, finely detailed buildings including labelled religious buildings. A second Alexandria object is an image of the front and back of an Ayyubid coin, the currency used under Saladin’s reign. The final image is that of a garnet ring from the 14^th century, akin to the type of ring Torello’s wife would have given to him to remember her by.

Building the exhibit gave me a greater appreciation for the events of the story. Being able to visually plot the travels of the two characters and get a sense of the distance they travelled gave me greater appreciation for the miraculous nature of the plot, namely the second meeting between Torello and Saladin in Alexandria; all the way across the Mediterranean! Being able to see the paths of these characters amplified the message of the story – the value of friendship. Seeing their courses plotted on a map and having their friendship blossom in spite of their greatly separate lives really emphasizes the moral of the tale in the way reading cannot.

The exhibit uses Neatline to plot the paths of characters in the story. I found Neatline surprisingly easy to use, particularly how easy it was to link together multiple points and line together and link them together into a cohesive and ordered story. Additionally, being able to color-code the lines meant that I can delineate the two characters travels easily. I wish I was able to give the paths a sense of direction and order however (maybe, arrows or triangles pointing in the direction of travel). I found that – especially with the circular nature of the story – it could be confusing to tell which way he went, given that Torello returns to his starting location. I also had some difficulty creating precise start and end points for lines on a large scale. For example, drawing a long line between Italy and Alexandria meant I had to zoom out the map, and while the start and end of the line may join other points while the map is zoomed out, they became mis-aligned when the map is zoomed in.

This map mirrors our discussions of medieval maps very closely. While modern maps focus on precision and geographical accuracy, and are mainly used as guidance tools, medieval maps also were often used to depict a narrative. For example, as presented in class, Matthew Paris’s map of the route to Jerusalem is used as a vehicle to describes his personal pilgrimage to Jerusalem and is filled with text describing such. It is used to not only map the physical are of Jerusalem, but to tell a specific narrative. Similarly, the Psalter Map is used to describe the transcendence from the holy city of Jerusalem upwards into the Garden of Eden and the heavens. Like both medieval maps, the map I created to show the Tale of Messer Torello is used in a similar way. The map is used as a physical backdrop to depict and guide the narrative, giving anchors to the plot points of the story.

 

Works Cited

amulet-ring. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2018 from The British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=50526&partId=1&searchText=ring&images=true&place=42023&from=ad&fromDate=1000&to=ad&toDate=1400&page=1

Boccaccio, G., & Payne, J. (2007, December 3). The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio. Retrieved April 6, 2018 from http://www.gutenberg.org: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23700/23700-h/23700-h.htm

coin. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2018 from The British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=897148&partId=1&searchText=Saladin&from=ad&fromDate=900&to=ad&toDate=1400&view=list&page=1

dish. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2018 from The British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=78292&partId=1&place=42023&from=ad&fromDate=1000&to=ad&toDate=1300&page=2

Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae / Alexandria. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2018 from The British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3064504&partId=1&searchText=alexandria+map&page=1