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Baron Arminio Piovasco di Rondò
A fearsome thief who terrorizes everyone in Ombrosa. He has a reputation for being ruthless and uncompromising. In the weeks before Cosimo meets him, he discovers that all the robberies attributed to Gian dei Brughi haven’t actually been committed by the man himself; many thieves work with dei Brughi and use his name to protect themselves. This begins to change when, in dei Brughi’s old age, he meets Cosimo while escaping from some constables, and the two develop a relationship in which Cosimo passes novels to the bandit. A lifelong reader, Gian dei Brughi is thrilled to finally have access to books, though the relationship becomes trying for Cosimo since dei Brughi wants to know about all the books Cosimo gives him, so Cosimo has to at least skim them first. Though dei Brughi is happy for the first time in a long time with his novels—especially Samuel Richardson’s novel Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady—this newfound habit ultimately leads to his death, since his desire to get back to reading means that he bungles an attempted robbery and is captured. In dei Brughi’s final days, Cosimo learns several important lessons about what it means to help someone be happy and die with dignity. He reads dei Brughi the rest of a partially-finished novel and begins reading another one that’s happy in order to lift the bandit’s spirit. Cosimo shares the book’s ending with dei Brughi on the day of the bandit’s hanging so that dei Brughi can die satisfied. Biagio also insists that Cosimo learned the importance of helping others from dei Brughi.
Gian dei Brughi Quotes in The Baron in the Trees
The The Baron in the Trees quotes below are all either spoken by Gian dei Brughi or refer to Gian dei Brughi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
Cosimo had always liked to watch people working, but so far his life in the trees, his movements and his hunting, had always answered to isolated and unmotivated whims, as if he were a little bird. Now instead the need to do something useful for his neighbor possessed him. And this, too, if you looked closely, was something he had learned from the company of the bandit: the pleasure of making himself useful, of performing a task indispensable to others.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Gian dei Brughi Quotes in The Baron in the Trees
The The Baron in the Trees quotes below are all either spoken by Gian dei Brughi or refer to Gian dei Brughi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
Cosimo had always liked to watch people working, but so far his life in the trees, his movements and his hunting, had always answered to isolated and unmotivated whims, as if he were a little bird. Now instead the need to do something useful for his neighbor possessed him. And this, too, if you looked closely, was something he had learned from the company of the bandit: the pleasure of making himself useful, of performing a task indispensable to others.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
