# Messer Gentile de' Carisendi — The Decameron character guide

> Messer Gentile de' Carisendi in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Messer Gentile, Messer Gentile Carisendi, Gentile

**First appearance:** 0049-the-tenth-story

## Snapshot

A Bolognese nobleman whose love for a married lady leads him to revive her from seeming death and then surrender her to her husband.

## Who they are

Messer Gentile is a distinguished gentleman of Bologna who has long loved a lady now married to another man, and whose generosity of spirit matches his rank. When he discovers her body laid out as dead, he takes her to his home, where she revives, and he tends her with a devotion that could easily become possession. His decision to restore her to her husband rather than keep her for himself makes him the brigata's model of a love that gives rather than takes, and his story tests whether noble feeling can survive the opportunity to satisfy it.

## In the story

### [The Fourth Story](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_decameron_se/chapters/the-fourth-story)

The noble lover who rescues his beloved from the tomb and later restores her to her husband.

### [The Fifth Story](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_decameron_se/chapters/the-fifth-story)

Mentioned as a comparison for magnanimity; the story is told to show a greater generosity.

## Links

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