During the Middle Ages, a horrific pestilence known as the Black Death spread across Europe, igniting an inferno of depression, suffering, and, most irrevocably, death that has come to define an era. Although historians disagree on the precise origin of the plague, the general consensus suggests that Genoese merchant ships brought the Black Death to Messina in 1347, and it proceeded to advance throughout Europe off and on for centuries, the bubonic form by flea-infested rats on trading ships and the pneumonic form from one human to another. Due to the lack of medical knowledge and, hence, the absence of a cure at the time, the Black Death killed more than one and a half million people - approximately one-third of Europe’s total pre-plague population …show more content…
As Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, who lived in Florence during the height of the plague, described in the introduction to his novella, The DeCameron, the contagious nature of the Black Death prompted people to “avoid the sick and everything belonging to them” in order to evade contracting the devastating disease themselves. This heartless attitude toward the suffering was relevant on the scale of an entire city, with citizens shunning their neighbors, as well as within the family, with brother abandoning brother and wife deserting husband. As a result, victims of the bubonic plague were often left to die alone without receiving the last sacraments typical of the Christian religion or even having a funeral. In fact, Marchionne di Coppo di Stefano Buonaiuti, a small land owner in Europe in the 1370s, noted in The Florentine Chronicle that people abandoned their sick relatives through deception, telling the frail person that they were going to fetch a doctor- many of whom were dropping dead from the plague themselves- but never returning. Evidently, fear of the Black Death trumped whatever obligation one had to caring for their family or neighbors during this dark time, namely because the plague was so infectious. The gruesome symptoms of the disease- boils on the neck or thigh, black spots of internal bleeding, and coughing up blood- served as warning signs to stay away from the person, for coming in contact with a person suffering from the plague- whether they were alive or dead- almost guaranteed catching it. To save themselves from a similar fate, people, regardless of who of or what they had to leave behind, fled to the countryside, where there were less people, in hopes of dodging this density dependent disease. The Grim Reaper was merciless when
In Middle Aged Europe, feudalism and the Catholic Church dominated what was left of a central government. People lived without leadership, and those who did turned only to small based feudal Lords with little power. This led to a serious lack of intellectual activity and many of the Europeans during this era were considered to be, “wallowing in their own filth.” As a result, the Black Death spread rampantly after its initiation in 1348. Several accounts of the disease portrayed it as a horrendous, deadly and disgusting disease that preyed on every man woman and child. Angelo di Tura chronicles the outbreak of the Black Death in the Italian city of Siena in May of 1348. He writes, “There are not words to describe how horrible these events have been [...] whoever can say that they have not lived in utterly horrid conditions can consider themselves lucky” remarking at how terrible life with
In 1347, Europe began to perceive what the Plague had in store. Terrible outcomes arose when the citizens caught the Plague from fleas. The transfer of fleas to humans caused the outbreak of the Black Death. Infections that rodents caught were passed on to fleas, which would find a host to bite, spreading the terrible disease (“Plague the Black Death” n.pag.). When Genoese ships arrived back to Europe from China, with dead sailors and...
Many people of this time thought the Plague arrived due to their sins as accounted by Gabriele de’ Mussis. “I pronounce these judgment: may your joys be turned to mourning, your prosperity be shaken by adversity, the course of your life be passed in never ending terror…no one will be given rest, poisoned arrows will strike everyone, fevers will throw down the proud, and incurable disease will strike like lightning” This quote reveals that God imposed the plague onto the people and they had to suffer due to their sins. In another section of this book, there is an excerpt from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. In it he describes the symptoms the people in the city of Florence suffered due to this disease. “It’s earliest symptom, in men and women alike, was the appearance of certain swellings in the groin or the armpit, some of which were egg shaped while some where the size of a common apple…Later on…people began to find dark botches and bruises on their arms, thighs, and other parts of the body” This source is one of many found in Horrox’s book that all list the same symptoms for this mysterious disease throughout all of
To begin with the fact that Boccaccio explains that despite all of the precautions, such as the cleansing of the city and refusing of entrance to all sick people, the Bubonic Plague came from the East and hit Florence in 1348. It continued to spread throughout the Europe, devastating all towns and villages. Not only does Boccaccio give us the origin of the Plague and the exact time of its appearance in Europe, but he also describes symptoms, transmission and people’s reactions to it in details. The symptoms of the Plague in Europe differed from those in the East. A manifest sign of inevitable death in the East was a blood from a nose, while in Florence, at first, there were bigger or smaller tumors in the groin or the armpits, which would then spread indifferently all over the infected person’s body. Later, black spots would appear on different parts of the
“I think a rat just climbed up my leg, Dad. And I’ve got fleas, too.” “John, there’s all this Black Death and all you care about is a few fleas and a rat.
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).
In the 1300’s, there was an outbreak of a disease known as the Black Death that engulfed all of Europe. This sickness, also know as the Bubonic Plague, rampaged throughout Europe killing over a third of the population. A bacteria known as Yersinia pestis caused the disease. The bacteria, originating in fleas, spread to rats and then to people. Black Death was spread from trade throughout Europe. The large cities were affected first, and then it spread to the less dense and populated surrounding areas. The mortality rate in large cities was near fifty percent of the population, while in more rural areas the rate was lower. This lasting effects of this disease changed Europe both socially and economically. The bubonic plague triggered a loss of faith and generated negative feelings towards the church, but positively affected the masses by creating opportunities that they didn’t have in the past.
An unknown eye witness accounts details of the immediate stress the plague brought to Europe. "Realizing what a deadly disaster had come to them, the people quickly drove the Italians from their city. But the disease remained, and soon death was everywhere. Fathers abandoned their sick sons. Lawyers refused to come and make out wills for the dying.
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
The Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemic that hit Europe in history. The Black Death first emerged in the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 (Gottfried,1). The plague came from several Italian merchant ships which were returning to Messina. Several sailors on board were dying of an unknown disease and a few days after arriving in Messina, several residents within and outside of Messina were dying as well (Poland 1). The Black Death was as deadly as it was because it was not limited by gender, age, or species. The Black Death was also very deadly because it could attack in three different forms: the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic plague.
(Frankforter, pg. 348). The fundamental theme of Boccaccio 's narrative was the struggle between life
The Bubonic Plague, or more commonly known as ‘The Black Death’ or ‘The Black Plague,’ was one of the most devastating and deadliest pandemics that humans have ever witnessed in the history of mankind. The disease spanned two continents in just a few years, marking every country between Western Europe all the way to China. During the reign of the plague, which is estimated to be the years between 1347-1352, it is estimated that “20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population” was killed off due to the plague. The Black Plague would change the course of European history since the plague knew no boundaries and inflicted its wrath upon the rich and the poor alike. As a result, not only did the plague have a devastating demographic impact which encountered a massive social disruption, but also, an economic and religious impact as well.
Chaos struck all-over Europe in the 14th century; no social class or individual was immune from this bizarre mysterious death. Historians estimated that this unidentifiable disease killed a total of one-third of Europe’s population by the 1350’s. Now in today’s society scientists classify the unidentifiable disease as the bubonic plague also referred to as the Black Death. During 14th century European-society, there was no logical medical knowledge; instead, people resorted to supplementary explanations, such as God punishing the sinners, or other religious groups outside of Christianity misbehaving (Black Death 1). In this time period, oral tradition was still common among the illiterate, luckily for the upper class society several people were literate and documented the event of the Black Death by letters, poems, or even stories. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio is a fictional medieval allegory story within its frame narrative has 100 tales that documented life in Italy occurring the same years as the bubonic plague. In the text the Decameron, author Boccaccio, depicts a story about ten wealthy Italians fleeing to the countryside after news of this mysterious deadly disease. Through interpretations of the story, Boccaccio gives insight about the Black Death’s affects, believed causations of the time, moral and religion standard, and response of the people in Florence Italy. In addition, found from examining the texts, information not related to the Black Death such as insight about the affects the Decameron had on society, Boccaccio’s reason for creating the story, and the intended audience. (Boccaccio).
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,
The Black Death Every year millions of people die. People die either from natural causes or from another source like murder. Cancer and AIDS are the number one diseases leading to death in the 21st century. (Jueneman 1)