Our protagonist is not able to take Lorenzo’s entire dead body with her and she therefore decides to cut off his head and put it in a pot with basil: in a testo of basil. In modern Italian testo would be vaso di terracotta, being a terracotta vase. Now, note this: the Italian word for head is testa. Boccaccio seemed to have chosen these words deliberately and very carefully.
On the island of Crete basil is the symbol of mourning, which is along the lines of Lisabetta who is mourning the death of her Lorenzo. See Lucy Bregman. 2009. Religion, Death, and Dying_. ABC-CLIO. The basil that she plants on top of his head may also be viewed as a tool to ensure his safe passage to the afterlife. It also played a significant role in burial rituals and in Sicilian folklore. John Gerard even claims basil to be a remedy for melancholySee John Gerard, and Thomas Johnson. 2015. The herbal or general history of plants: the complete 1633 edition as revised and enlarged by Thomas Johnson.This can also be looked at in reference to the novella of our protagonist, when she tries to soothe herself by crying over Lorenzo’s pot because she is sad and depressed over his death.
Another point of view is that the pot of basil symbolizes fertility. In fact, Lorenzo’s head together with the basil is being fertilized by her tears. She could have seen the plant as a helpless child; a child that needed to be looked after and had to be raised with love. She carefully chooses to only water the plant with her tears or with rose or orange-blossom water. See page 751 of Boccaccio, Giovanni, Amedeo Quondam, Giancarlo Alfano, and Maurizio Fiorilla. 2019. Decameron In conclusion, we could interpret Lisabetta taking care of the pot of basil as a last way to cherish the love between her and her lover. In this way, their love is able to live on for a little while. We end our tour with the end of this novella…