Accidenti femminili: la sposa risuscitata

GUILLERMO CARRASCÓN, Female accidents: the resuscitated bride Among the many novellas in the Decameron, one of the best-known in Spain is the fourth of the tenth day, the love story between Gentil Carisendi and a married woman, and of how he freed her from the grave in which she had been put after everyone thought she was dead, and of how he returned her to her husband, along with her newborn child. The story can be found, with a few changes of a different nature, both in the literary versions written by Luis Zapata and Lope de Vega and later by other authors, and in the oral tradition, in the form of romance, as it came to be known in the 20th century. My essay presents an analysis of the main variations found in the different versions of the novella, taking into account the one by Bandello as well (Novelle, II 41), with a special focus on the way the women protagonists and their “accidents” are represented.