BOOK ONE

...victorious, or the beloved Lady when she loves him in return.
To a literal-minded Lady original: "Donna positiva"—referring to a woman who is practical, perhaps less educated in the courtly arts or poetic metaphors of small intellect, one could ask, in order to behave well:
How many lances would need to be broken in a joust?
The favor she would grant her lover, knowing him to be victorious and praised.
Whether she would wish that, upon winning, he be recognized as her Lover.

These things, when necessity and the need for them arise, turn out much better in practice than I can presently recount and describe; now we shall proceed to the Game of Fortune.

A decorative woodcut initial 'A' depicts a social gathering of several figures, likely ladies and gentlemen, in a garden or courtyard setting.

ADVENTUROUS Ladies, knowing as I do that Fortune Fortuna: in the Renaissance, Fortune was viewed as a fickle, blind goddess who distributed wealth and status randomly, often depicted with a wheel often exalts and often impoverishes the Kingdom of Love, and how in all other human affairs, she sometimes raises the unworthy near to you while leaving the most deserving below. And she makes such men the possessors of your grace, honors, and riches, who by chance might be worthy of all misfortunes and miseries.

So that she does not cause you to fall into this error, and so that you may choose people who are suited to the high thoughts, dignity, and beauty of your Soul, I have thought to write in memory of this, dedicating to you a Game of Fortune. Do you not see how she is blind and without Reason, not distinguishing between people or their merits? How she is uncertain, rarely producing her effects? How she is changeable, turning in an instant from foul to fair and fair to foul?

And nonetheless, I know that if it were granted to you without further consideration, you would make her a Goddess, as many once did, and you would consecrate statues and Temples to her, choosing to hold her in honor forever, provided she showed herself favorable to your enterprises and made you fortunate and content in all your desires. And for this reason, I have thought to do something highly pleasing to you by describing the so-welcomed Game of Fortune. When, therefore, you are gathered in a circle as you often are in a pleasant company brigata: a traditional group of friends gathered for social entertainment, storytelling, and games, popularized by literature like Boccaccio's Decameron, you may for yourselves, or by leaving the