TEXT – BOCACCIO AND THE BLACK DEATH
The Italian writer Bocaccio lived through the plague when it reached Florence in
1348, and it inspired him to write his long collection of stories, The Decameron.
“ I say that in the year 1348 a deadly plague entered the noble city of Florence, the
most beautiful in Italy. Some people say that it came through the influence of the
heavenly bodies, and others that it was caused by God's anger at our evil actions.
Whatever the cause, It had begun some years earlier in the East, where it claimed
many lives, before it spread westwards, growing in strength as it went from one place
to another. The symptoms were not the same as in the East, where a nose bleed was
the sign of the arrival of death. It began both in men and women with swellings in
the groin or under the armpits. These grew to the size of a small apple or an egg.
After this point the disease started to alter in nature, with black or livid spots
appearing on the arms, the thighs, everywhere. Sometimes they were large and well
spaced, other times small and numerous. No doctor's advice, no medicine seemed to
be of any help. Either the disease was incurable or the doctors simply didn't know
how to cure it. Many tried, though.
The pestilence spread so efficiently that, not only did it pass from person to
person, but if an animal touched the belongings of some sick or dead person it
contracted the pestilence and died of it in a short time. As our city sunk into this
affliction and misery the reverend authority of the law, both divine and human,
sunk with it and practically disappeared, for those who were supposed to be its
ministers and executors were, like other people, either dead, sick or so taken up
with the needs of their own families that they could not perform their offices. That
left everyone else free to make his or her own arrangements. A large number of
men and women abandoned their city, houses, families and possessions in order to
go elsewhere, at least to the Florentine countryside, as if the wrath of God
punishing humankind with this pestilence would not follow them there. [...]
The poor and even the middling classes faced an even grimmer prospect. Most of
them stayed in their own homes and neighbourhoods, either because they hoped
they would be safe there or because they could afford to do no other. They fell sick
by the thousands every day, and having neither servants nor anyone else to care for
them they almost always died. Many of them died in the street either during the
day or by night, while those who died in their homes were noticed by their
neighbours only when the smell of their decomposing bodies brought them to
public attention. There were dead bodies all over [...] They would drag the dead
bodies out of their homes and left them in front of their doors. In the morning
great numbers of them could be seen. What more can be said except that the
cruelty of heaven (and perhaps in part of humankind as well) was such that between
March and July, thanks to the force of the plague and the fear that led the healthy
to abandon the sick, more than one hundred thousand people died within the walls
of Florence.
Answer the following questions:
1. Does Bocaccio know what caused the plague?
- He doesn’t, but he said the following: “Some people say that it came through the
influence of the heavenly bodies, and others that it was caused by God's anger at our
evil actions.”
2. What were the symptoms he describes?
- First, it started with swelling around the groins or armpits. They grew to the size of
either an egg or apple. Followed by black or livid spots around everywhere, arms,
thighs etc.The spots could vary in size, length, and number.
3. Does he consider that leaving the city was enough for not suffering from the plague?
- No. He thought that God was going to follow them anywhere, and they could
not run from the pestilence: …”as if the wrath of God punishing humankind
with this pestilence would not follow them there.”
4. What were the consequences it had for Florence during the plague?
- Thousands of people died everywhere and at any time each day.
5. What were the consequences after the plague?
- After the plague more than one hundred thousand people died. All of them
were dragged to their front doors and you could see them.
