Disputatio gestu
A powerful nation send a messanger to an enemy kingdom, to negotiate their relationship, and to see whether they will arrive at a place of peace by testing the wisdom and insight of the population. (In the Italian Stefano, it is the Carthaginians sending an ambassador to Rome, considering peace; in The Forty Viziers, it is a sultan sending someone to a vassal state to see if they should continue paying tribute.) The amabassador arrives in the foreign court, and does not speak, but instead holds out his hand in a distinctive gesture. No one knows what this means, but at last a man of humble standing (a wandering dervish in the Forty Viziers; a low-ranked senator widely regarded as a fool in Stefano) steps forward, and makes a gesture in return. The ambassador responds with another movement of his hands, and the man replies with a different gesture. After this exchange, the ambassador looks impressed, and bows respectfully, returning to his own land. The humble man had interpreted the exchange as a series of threats (one finger held up means he promises to pluck out an eye; three fingers means he will strike us after gouging out both eyes; fingers pointing upward means I will strike from below, etc.) and is pleased to have won this battle of gestures. However, the ambassador had interpreted the exchange as a theological dispute. He tells the members of his own court not to go to war with the foreign country, for their representative successfully interpreted religious arguments through hand gestures. (In The Forty Viziers, the number of fingers correspond with the number of times one must pray daily; in Stefano, the fingers represent God, then the Father and Son, then the Trinity, who are themselves all one, as demonstrated by the fingers curled into a fist).
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| Disputatio gestu appears in the following manuscripts
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