# Messer Torello d'Istria — The Decameron character guide

> Messer Torello d'Istria in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Torello, Messer Torello, Messer Torello de Dignes

**First appearance:** 0025-the-tenth-story

## Snapshot

A Pavian nobleman whose lavish hospitality to a disguised Saladin is repaid years later in a single miraculous night.

## Who they are

Messer Torello is the soul of courtesy, a lord who treats an unknown traveler with such generosity that he gives away his own wife's jewels to clothe him. When he leaves for the Crusade, he leaves behind a wife he adores and a debt of honor he cannot know will be called in. His story is the Decameron's great fantasy of hospitality rewarded, where a nobleman's virtue travels further than any army and returns to him at the moment of his greatest need.

## In the story

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

A gentleman of Pavia who generously hosts Saladin, joins the crusade, is captured, and is magically returned home by Saladin's command.

## Links

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