Retelling the 5th novella of the 4th day

Adad Hannah found his inspiration in William Holman Hunt’s painting (Fig. 1) of the same novella. It is the fifth novella of the fourth day. Let us look at the story:

The fifth novella tells the story of Lisabetta da Messina, who has three merchant brothers. She falls in love with their employee Lorenzo and they start an affair, which they manage to keep a secret for quite some time. One day the brothers find out about their sister’s love for the young man and decide that her lover needs to be killed. Long story short: the brothers take Lorenzo out of the city, kill him and bury him without their sister knowing what has happened to the man she so passionately loved.

However, the brothers had not anticipated that Lorenzo would come to Lisabetta in a dream to tell her what had happened to him and where he was buried. After his unexpected appearance, she secretly visits where his grave is supposed to be and digs up his remains. She is not able to take his entire body with her and therefore decides to cut off his head, which she then puts in a pot with basil planted on top of it. Heartbroken by the whole situation she cries over the pot of basil every day, thus watering the plant with her tears.

What we do not see in this scene is that a short time after her brothers take it away from her, she dies of sorrow and in this way her story ends tragically.

This novella has inspired not only Adad Hannah and William Holam Hunt. Poets, painters and cineasts have turned Boccaccio’s novella into new forms of art. Click to read and enjoy some of those allusions to Lisabetta and the Pot of Basil. Or do you want to dive into the role of the pot of basil? Then go to the next step.