Unit 1 - "A Most Terrible Plague"

Author Bio:  Author - Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 CE - 1375 CE) - Best known as a humanist of the Italian Renaissance; laid the foundation for humanism; was born in Certaldo, Italy (a small town and commune of Tuscany); his passions resided in writing poetry and literature; greatest and most famous work was, The Decameron

Speaker - Giovanni Boccaccio (above)

Date/ Context: This document was written during the Renaissance. To be more specific, it was written in the years of the bubonic plague (1348 CE - 1353 CE). Additionally, this document is an excerpt taken from, The Decameron. The Decameron, is a compilation of stories and experiences of several men and women who had lived through the plague. This excerpt, was the introduction to those stories; it provided the background information on the plague, and the effects it had on the people, town, etc. that were living through it.

Summary: Boccaccio began by explaining that the plague did not reach Florence, Italy until some time after the plague had broken out. The plague started out in eastern Europe, and eventually made its way over to the west. He explained the fatal prognostic of the millions of people who were affected by the plague. Originally, from what had been seen in France, the fatal prognostic was bleeding from the nose. However, as the plague caught its victims in Florence, it became apparent that people were suffering from tumors found in the groin and armpits. Boccaccio elaborated more on the details; he went on to discuss the inability of finding a cure for the millions of people who were affected by the plague. As a result, the cities piled up with dead bodies, and there was an inability to smell anything other than rotting corpses. Towards the middle and end of the excerpt, Boccaccio explained the horrid affects that the plague had on people, friends, family, and society. He explained and highlighted on how people turned on one another; siblings left siblings, parents left their own children, wives left their husbands, etc. The Black Death had no remorse, and as a result it took remorse from its victims. Boccaccio explained with more verbiage, that it became a fight for survival.

Key Quotes: 

"I pass over the little regard that citizens and relations showed to each other; for their terror was such, that a brother even fled from his brother, a wife from her husband, and, what is more uncommon, a parent from his own child"

"And such, at that time, was the public distress, that the laws, human and divine, were no more regarded; for the officers, to put them in force, being either dead, sick, or in want of persons to assist them, every one did just as he pleased."

"nearly all died the third day from the first appearance of the symptoms, some sooner, some later"