# Messer Ricciardo di Chinzica — The Decameron character guide

> Messer Ricciardo di Chinzica in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Messer Ricciardo, Ricciardo di Chinzica, Ricciardo

**First appearance:** 0071-the-eighth-story

## Snapshot

An aging judge who takes a young bride and tries to govern his marriage by the same legalistic logic he applies to the courtroom.

## Who they are

Messer Ricciardo is a respected jurist of Pisa whose learning has done nothing to prepare him for the appetites of a young wife, and he approaches the marriage as though it were a case to be argued and won. His vanity about his own cleverness blinds him to the obvious, and his attempts to regulate desire by rule and calendar become the setup for his own cuckolding. He stands among the Decameron's gallery of husbands whose authority rests on parchment rather than performance, and his story asks what happens when the law meets the body.

## In the story

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

A weak and foolish judge who marries a young wife but fails to satisfy her, leading to her abandonment.

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

The provincial judge who becomes the victim of the prank, humiliated in court.

## Links

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