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The medieval period
The medieval period
Black death socials studiess
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Thesis
Bibliography
Primary Sources
The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio writes a series of stories that involve seven women and three men wanting to escape the city and take refuge in countryside villa, in which they do and proceed to tell each other stories. Most importantly, it takes place during the Black Death and describes some of the effects on the church and family life. This source will help with firsthand accounts of what happened during the plague.
Ibeji, Mike. “British History in Depth: Black Death.” BBC. Last modified March 10, 2011. Although it is simply a website, it provides quotes from people who lived during the plague. The quotes tell about how the plague killed the poor and the rich, ignoring the social constructs of the time. Furthermore, it provides quotes from different people who lived in different areas. This source will be extremely helpful when talking about the plagues disregard for all people.
The Spread of the Plague according to Gabriele de’ Mussi. Mussi describes the deaths of the Tartars and in a desperate attempt to try to rid the corpses, they began to order the corpses to be catapulted into a city. It later describes the deaths of practically everything in the East, ranging from the Chinese, Indians, Persians, Turks, Greeks, and much more. This source will be extremely helpful when talking
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She also goes into detail about the religious aspects of the Middle Ages, explaining that Catholicism was the most predominate religion at the time. Not only does she explain the religious aspect, but she also includes the famine that hit Europe, the way the disease traveled and different symptoms. This source will help in talking about daily life during the
During the course of the Plague common beliefs and/or concerns underwent a dramatic change. During the early years of the Plague outbreak the prevalent belief was of fear of the Plague and its uncertainty of the cause. Most people during this time were concerned that the Plague would affect their economy and their own work/business. People were also concerned of their lives and their family's well being. Then as time went on beliefs changed from this to fear to a religious superstition.
Age is just a number, well at least for Stephen Quinn it is. Stephen Quinn is 15 years old, but he does not let his age define who he is. Although Stephen was matured for his age when the plague started, he still had a lot of growing to do. Throughout the novel The Eleventh Plague Stephen is prematurely forced through the journey into adulthood. Stephen had to mentally mature enough to allow himself to open up and trust people. Stephen had to toughen up and become a man and he had to be strong enough to have courage in the worst of times. When he thought it could not get any worse he was hit with something that seemed unsurpassable. He had to suffer the pain of losing his dad to the plague.
"From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages." Medievalists.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Think of a North America without electricity, no running water, no government, almost no buildings left intact, and ravaged by a Chinese manufactured plague, even though it’s hard to imagine that's what happened in Jeff Hirsch’s The Eleventh Plague. In Jeff Hirsch’s Eleventh Plague a family made up of the Dad, Mom, Grandfather, and son are trying to survive in a North America ravaged by a Chinese Plague , But then the mom and grandpa die and dad and Stephen are left on their own, but when the dad gets injured running away from some slavers, A Town named Settlers Landing that seems too good to be true takes them in. Then Stephen befriends a girl named Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends the town into chaos. A war is started and it is up to them to help stop it. I thought that The Eleventh Plague was a believable piece of Speculative Fiction because of Hirsch's use of elements of Conflict, Theme, and Red Herrings.
So much death could not help but tear economic and social structures apart. Lack of peasants and laborers sent wages soaring, and the value of land plummeted. For the first time in history the scales tipped against wealthy landlords as peasants and serfs gained more bargaining power. Without architects, masons and artisans, great cathedrals and castles remained unfinished for hundreds of years. Governments, lacking officials, floundered in their attempts to create order out of chaos.
The Black Death is one of the deadliest epidemics to ever hit mankind. It is estimated that this epidemic killed nearly 30%-60% of the population depending on the location. Recently, scholars have argued over the existence of the Black Death as a Plague in the form of Yersinia Pestis. Many argue, through scientific research and primary sources, that the Black Death was indeed a plague. Their critics argue that there is not enough evidence in the correlation of the scientific research and the primary sources to conclude that the Black Death was really a plague. The primary source The Black Death, by Rosemary Horrox, is a compilation of different accounts of the plague throughout Europe in the 1300’s. The two modern sources Plague Historians
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer and humanist. He lived in Florence in the 14th century and left behind one of the world’s greatest works of literature, a collection of novellas called The Decameron. Besides having an important role in forming a standard Italian language, that book is also important in human history as it very precisely describes the calamity and the consequences of the Black Plague in Florence, Italy. It is also very helpful for me as a history student because it eases the understanding of the effects the Black Plague had on a society at that time.
Through the eyes of Boccaccio, plague in the City of Florence due has formed three basic forms of social groups. First, there were people who believed that "a sober and abstemious mode of living considerably reduced the risk of infection" therefore they lived in isolation from the rest of the people (Boccaccio 7).
No other epidemic reaches the level of the Black Death which took place from 1348 to 1350. The epidemic, better regarded as a pandemic, shook Europe, Asia, and North Africa; therefore it deems as the one of the most devastating events in world history. In The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350, John Aberth, compiles primary sources in order to examine the origins and outcomes of this deadly disease. The author, a history professor and associate academic dean at Vermont’s Castleton State College, specializes in medieval history and the Black Death. He wrote the book in order to provide multiple perspectives of the plague’s impact. Primarily, pathogens started the whole phenomenon; however, geological, economic, and social conditions
http://liboc.tctc.edu:2058/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA116672803&v=2.1&u=tricotec_main&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w Lapaire, Pierre J. & Co. The Plague: Overview of the. Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Lesley Henderson.
Despite all, their love was not strong enough to fight against the plague. They had prayed every night for help for Alice, but shortly they all fell ill. Together they experienced nausea and violently vomited. They began to swell; hard, painful, burning lumps on their neck, arms and thighs then appeared. Their bumps had turned black, split open and began to ooze yellow, thick puss and blood. They were decaying on the inside; anything that would come out of their bodies would contain blood and soon puddles of blood formed under their skin. They slowing withered away together. The home became repulsing; the flowers in their yard could no longer mask the smells of their rotting bodies and revolting bodily fluids. Alice was the first to leave, then John, Mama, and Papa followed. Together they all fell victim to the Black Plague.
(Frankforter, pg. 348). The fundamental theme of Boccaccio 's narrative was the struggle between life
In a letter from an Italian lawyer, Gabriele de’ Mussi, he speaks about the plague, saying, “thus almost everyone who had been in the East…fell victim [to the plague] …the Chinese, Indians, Persians…,” he then continues to name thirteen other groups of people that succumbed to the plague. Later in his letter, Mussi speaks about the results of the plague when it hit Western Europe, stating, “it was found that more than 70 percent of the people had died…The rest of Italy, Sicily, and Apulia and the neighboring regions…have been virtually emptied of inhabitants.” In another account, an unnamed resident of Britain summed up the plague by stating that, “…the plague killed indiscriminately, striking at rich and poor alike.” Countless numbers of firsthand accounts show that an “epidemic disease,” such as The Black Death, “were experienced indiscriminately by all social
In 1348, people from all around the world suffered from one of the most deadliest and cruel diseases known as the Black Death. The plague killed so many people in Europe that some of the villages were abandoned and the population of some cities was decreased by half. Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer and poet who eye-witnessed and described the horrors caused by the Black Death in his novels Decameron. In Boccaccio’s work, the sick people were left behind to survive on their own and even children were left behind by their parents because they were sick. Unfortunately, from all the people who died during the epidemic, the peasants were those who actually benefited from it. The Black Death end up with political,
Giovanni Boccaccio's the Decameron, written in the Early Renaissance, is a sharp social commentary that reflected the ideas and themes of the Renaissance and of Renaissance Humanism. His tales of nuns and priests caught in compromising situations, corrupt clergy selling chances to see religious artifacts, and of wives cheating on their husbands show the changing ideals of the time and the corruption that was running rampant within the church and in the lives of the general populace. The Decameron speaks against this corruption and reflects the secular attitude of living as happily as possible, demoting the principals of Christian morality that had ruled daily life in the time before the Renaissance. Another concept that sprung from the Renaissance was capitalism, an aspect that Boccaccio explores. The capitalism of the Renaissance, corruption of the Church clergy and the ideas of humanism are reflected in the Decameron.