How to Be Both

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and graphic violence.  

When he is well into his twenties, Francescho tells his father that he is ready to strike out on his own, no longer needing apprenticeship or guardianship. Francescho’s father agrees and returns two pieces of paper to Francescho, neither of which Francescho remembers. One is the first page of writing he produced as a young child under his mother’s guidance, chiding his father for smacking him unjustly. The other is a contract that Francescho also produced in childhood, ready for their signatures to mark the official end of Francescho’s apprenticeship under his father. Accepting them is bittersweet, and Francescho leaves soon after. Three years later, Francescho returns and sees a beggar trying to sell one of his father’s tools. Fearing the worst, Francescho rushes to his father’s home only to find the man well and in the process of forgiving all debts owed to him. Shortly after, once Francescho has returned to Bologna, he receives word that his father has died. His brothers have abandoned their hometown so as not to inherit their father’s debts, so Francescho returns alone. A neighbor gives him five coins that Francescho’s father had gave to her shortly before his death, and Francescho keeps them for the remainder of his own life.