Unit 1: "God's Hand Was Unstrung"

Author Bio: Matteo Villani (1283-1363) - Italian historian who spent most of his life in Florence. He was the brother to Giovanni Villani who was the first great chronicler of Florence and had described the beginnings of the plague. When Giovanni died of the plague himself, Matteo continued his work writing eleven books of the Nuova Cronica. Matteo died of the plague 1363.

Date/Context: The plague or “Black Death” arrived in Europe by sea in 1347 by Genoese trading ships. Most of the sailors were dead and the few survivors were overcome by fever, unable to keep food down, and covered in black boils. The plague spread rapidly through Europe for the next five years killing more than 20 million people and livestock. People didn't know how to stop it or cure it so they fled and avoided the sick. Many believed that it was a curse from God so they either led temperate lives in hope that God would approve and lift his ban against humanity or enjoyed life to the utmost before death knocked on their door.

Summary: Villani wrote these observations about the survivors after the plague had run its course. Citizens believed that the few whose God’s grace had saved would become better conditioned, humble, virtuous, have love and charity towards one another and they would guard themselves from sin, but once they had survived, the opposite occurred. Citizens abounded in material objects, games of hazard, upgrading everything they owned and wearing strange and indecent clothing. Lawsuits, and riots, and quarrels arose debating legacies and successions. The common folk were affected too, they started taking anything they found that had been left by the dead and using it to benefit themselves. The city of Florence fell into disorderliness and other cities were the same or worse. Prices of everything rose beyond what they had ever been and men believing they had felt and survived the Lord’s wrath, did not believe God had anymore control over them.

Key Quotations: 

• “...no sooner had the plague ceased than we saw the contrary; for, since men were few, and since, by hereditary succession, they abounded in earthly goods, they forgot the past as though it had never been, and gave themselves up to a more shameful and disordered life than they had led before.”
• “...there was no part of the world wherein men restrained themselves to live in temperance, when once they had escaped from the fury of the Lord; for now they thought that God’s hand was unstrung…”