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The Most Deceitful Events that Played Out In History

Khalid Elhassan March 27, 2022 37 min

23. Brunelleschi Seems to Have Gotten Just About the Whole City to Participate in an Intricate Deceit

Deceit Facts - Renaissance Florence — Renaissance Florence. Pinterest

Things got worse for Manetto when a bailiff passed by, and addressed him as Matteo. Despite Manetto’s protestations that he had the wrong man, the bailiff promptly arrested the cabinet maker for debt. The now thoroughly bewildered Manetto was taken to prison, where his name was entered into the register as Matteo. Thrown into lockup, his fellow prisoners – all of whom were also in on the hilariously cruel deceit – addressed him as Matteo. Discombobulated, the cabinet maker spent a sleepless night in jail.

While behind bars, he solaced himself with the notion that it was all a case of mistaken identity that would soon get cleared up. Unfortunately, he was mistaken. After a night in jail, things got worse for Manetto’s mental health when the morning brought two “relatives” – the real Matteo’s brothers – to the prison, who claimed him as their kin. They paid his debt and freed him, even as they berated him for his gambling and wastrel ways. More bewildered now than ever, Manetto was escorted to Matteo’s home on the other side of Florence.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.