Dissertation on Birds of Prey and the Sport - the Falconry Heritage ...

egli cotanto amata avea, per moglie vedendosi, e oltre a cio ricchissimo, in letizia con lei,
miglior massaio fatto, termino gli anni suoi."
The desperate situation in which Federigo finds himself when Monna Giovanna
comes to visit is entirely due to his attempts to live the courtly ideal. He has already
begun to break the rules of his society at this point: he is using his falcon not for
recreational hunting as he ought, but as a lower-class hunter would, primarily in order to
provide food for his table. In fact, in following the dictates of courtliness when she visits,
he not only destroys the only courtly thing he still owned, but he breaks the rules of
hunting etiquette even further: not only is he dependent on the falcon for his food in
general, he is literally reduced to eating the provider of the food, and his pet.
The way Federigo had lived was completely impractical, caring nothing for
money, but only honor and courtesy in the old fashion. Boccaccio makes it clear at the
end, however, that the value of this attitude toward life is not completely discredited by
the windfall he gets by marrying Giovanna. It is in fact his unbridled courteous behavior
that wins him the lady he desires, and the money he needs. In serving his falcon for
dinner he makes the ultimate sacrifice for his lady, and she is impressed enough to decide
that, idealistically, she herself will marry a man who can give her nothing in a practical
sense. At the same time, however, it is demonstrated that living by the rules offin amors
in reality is an impossibility in the money-oriented culture in which he finds himself.
Having sacrificed to his lady every last scrap of courtly trappings that he possessed, down
to his last falcon,29 he surrenders to the exigencies of his situation and starts a new life as
29 Sergio Zatti finds this to be a necessary condition of the outcome: "I1 falcone rappresenta ... l'ultimo
segno di nobilta di cui l'aristocratico dovra spogliarsi per soddisfare il desiderio e avviare il suo nuovo
corso 'borghese'." In "Federigo e la metamorfosi del desiderio," Strumenti critici XI1 (1978): 243-4.