Character Analysis
Carrying a Torch
Fiammetta's name in Italian means "little flame," and like most of the other storytellers' names, it's a recycled one. Boccaccio uses the name in Il Filocolo, where Fiammetta's also a storyteller, and in the Elegia, where she's the protagonist whose lover Panfilo has abandoned her.
Shmoop can't confirm this (nor can anyone else), but it's been said that the romance of the Elegia is the disguised story of Boccaccio's amor for Maria D'Aquino, a woman he met (or admired) in Naples and who was reputed to be the illegitimate daughter of King Robert of Anjou. He apparently gave her the name Fiammetta so that he could use her character in his work. This also sheds some light on the detailed description we get of Fiammetta at the end of Day Four, when Filostrato's placing the crown on her head. She has:
[...] long, golden curls that cascaded down over delicate, pure white shoulders, a softly rounded face that glowed with the authentic hue of white lilies and crimson roses, a pair of eyes in her head that gleamed like a falcon's, and a sweet little mouth with lips like rubies [...] (IV.Conclusion.362)
Give us a minute while we pull ourselves together…
As you've probably guessed, this description represents a highly idealized form of female beauty. In all probability, the rumors swirling around Boccaccio's Fiammetta aren't true, though it makes a great story and provides a tidy explanation for the recurrence of Fiammetta's name in just about everything he'd written (slight exaggeration).
Spunky and Disturbed
We don't see or hear much from Fiammetta, with the exception of her stints as a storyteller. She has one truly shining moment at the end of Day Four after she's been crowned and is about to embark on her duties as Queen for a day. She turns to Filostrato, who has just tormented the brigata with a day of depressing stories, and says the most hilarious, forthright thing:
'[...] since I am sure that your songs will be no less gloomy than your stories, I desire that you should choose one and sing it to us now, so that no day other than this will be blighted by your woes.' (IV.Conclusion.363)
In other words, just get this over with.
We're pretty sure that the other members of the brigata were mentally high-fiving her at that moment. Yet it's also so unlike the darling, sweet portrait that we got of her just half a page before. Suddenly, the widely accepted idea that Fiammetta is linked to the cardinal virtue of Temperance makes a little more sense: she's had it with Filostrato's excessive grief and responds appropriately.
But our sweet, blonde curly girl has an inner psychopath lurking in the shadows. When she sings her song at the end of Day Ten, you'll feel a chill run down your spine. She speaks of her uncontrollable jealousy toward her lover, who it seems is a worthy gentleman but perhaps not faithful. In the end, she offers this warning:
'[...] let every woman know
Not to attempt such injury on me:
For if there should be one whose flattery
Or words or gestures should entice him hence
Then may I be deformed if bitterly
I do not make her weep for her offence.' (X.Conclusion.797)
At that moment, Fiammetta is making Filomena's unflattering portrait of women (I.Conclusion.17) look tame.
Fiammetta's Stories
Fiammetta tells the following stories:
The Marquess of Montferrat (I.5)
Andreuccio da Perugia (II.5)
Ricciardo Minutolo (III.6)
Tancred and Ghismonda (IV.1)
Federigo degli Alberighi (V.9)
Michele Scalza (VI.6)
The Jealous Merchant (VII.5)
Spinellocio e Zeppa (VIII.8)
Calandrino in Love (IX.5)
Charles of Anjou (X.6)