# Fra Puccio — The Decameron character guide

> Fra Puccio in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.

**Role:** major

**First appearance:** 0036-the-ninth-story

## Snapshot

A devout but credulous friar whose wife and her lover devise an elaborate penance to keep him piously occupied while they enjoy themselves.

## Who they are

Fra Puccio is a man of genuine piety and almost total gullibility, convinced that elaborate devotions will secure his salvation. His wife, weary of his austerities and drawn to a livelier companion, conspires to turn his faith into a convenient alibi, sending him into the garden for penances while she entertains indoors. His tale is one of the Decameron's most famous comedies of religious hypocrisy, where the joke lands not on faith itself but on the vanity of a man who mistakes performance for virtue.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_decameron_se/characters/fra_puccio
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- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_decameron_se/characters