Giletta and the Other Mediche

Abstract The novella of Giletta of Narbonne shows Boccaccio’s ability to rethink the role of human understanding and action after the devastation of the Black Death. The daughter of a physician, and, thanks to her father, “extremely well taught” in medical science herself, Giletta wins her beloved Beltramo by curing the King of France of a fistula. Her medical skills are met with the king’s reservation and plainly misogynistic attitude, however. Her status as medica (female doctor)—and a young one, at that—nurtures skepticism of her ability to fulfill her professional duties. But how do historical perceptions of the medical profession bear on the Decameron’s attitudes toward it? This article historicizes Giletta’s story in the context of coeval struggles between medical professionalism and charlatanism by reading novella 3.9 alongside the 1322 trial of Jacoba Felicie, a historical medica on the dock for providing health care without the required academic qualifications. The article posits that Boccaccio’s representations of physicians and medicine offer a complex view of the interplay between medical science, professional expectations, and societal understandings of the physician’s role.