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Professori Mark Borcija
History 1111
Rezvan Ngalla
December 10, 2015
The Decameron: The Black Death and it 's Effects
The Decameron was a collection tales written by Boccaccio. It was one of the best records of the black death. The black death was one of the worst plagues ever recorded in the history of plagues. The
Decameron is a combination of Greek words for "Ten" and "Day". According to Frankforter, the
Decameron is a "fictional record of the stories that ten Florentine men and women told to entertain themselves while they were hiding from the plague, the black death, that caused a lot of distress.
(Frankforter, pg. 348). The fundamental theme of Boccaccio 's narrative was the struggle between life and death as the plague spread rapidly throughout Europe. The Decameron has
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1) Physical effects
The plague had devastating effects on the economy and consequently on the people. The production of goods and foods decreased drastically and this ultimately led to starvation as people were unable to farm their lands because they were sick. This plague did not attack only the humans but also the animals and cattle as well. The disease was so contagious that touching even an object that had been previously touched by an infected person, will transmit the disease to the healthy person who touched the object. Some symptoms of the plague was swelling of the armpits and groin. As described by Boccaccio, "some of which were as large as apples, and some of which were shaped like eggs, some were small and others were large (Boccaccio, The Decameron). The plague swept through out the land like a whirl wind killing many people. Some died quicker than others, but most died within a few days of the first sign. What was worse about the plague was that the physicians at the time couldn 't find a cure to the disease. Many people who knew nothing about medicine used this as an opportunity to get
the biomedical crisis, later known as The Black Death, or bubonic plague, that attacked Europe during the fourteenth century. Cantor later tells about how the people came in contact with the plague and the symptoms that later occurred. The people who had been affected by the plague would first experience flu like symptoms, which usually included a high fever, in the second stage they would get buboes, which...
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
In his “Introduction to the Decameron,” Giovanni Boccaccio describes the plague’s harsh symptoms. This author mentions the individuals swelling and developing bruises; however, he employs a personal witnessing report on the grotesque nature. His story involving pigs feasting on a pauper who died from the disease gives insight into the body’s physical deterioration. According to Louis Sanctus, the plague breaks down into three stages. The first stage, the bubonic plague, has a life expectancy of three to six days. Its symptoms include swelling of the underarms, neck, or groin; increased body temperature, bleeding and vomiting, and disorientation. The second, the pneumonic plague, has two to three days of life expectancy. This hazardous stage inflames the lungs, leading to a discharge of pus. Thirdly, the septicemic stage gives no person a chance of life because the person would have only a few hours to live. As the deadliest form, bacteria would poison the blood resulting in a painful death. Doctors and families provided little to no assistance for the victims. Sanctus writes, “the doctor does not visit the sick for fear of this contagion…nor anyone another who may be a blood relation, unless he wishes to suddenly die like him or follow him [to the grave] immediately” (Aberth, 34). Under the pope’s direction, medical professionals from
It was a bubonic plague that came from Asia and spread by black rats infested with fleas. The plague spread like a wildfire because people who lived in high populated areas were living very close to each other and had no idea what was the cause of the disease or how to cure it. The signs of the “inevitable death” where blood from the nose, fever, aching and swellings big as an “apple” in the groin or under the armpits. From there the disease spread through the body in different directions and soon after it changed into black spots that appeared on the arms and thighs. Due to the lack of medical knowledge, no doctors manage to find a remedy. Furthermore a large number of people without any kind of medical experience tried to help the sick but most of them failed “...there was now a multitude both of men and of women who practiced without having received the slightest tincture of medical science - and, being in ignorance of its source, failed to apply the proper remedies…” (Boccaccio). The plague was so deadly that it was enough for a person to get infected by only touching the close of the
The plague was spread by fleas, which were not effected by the disease. Fleas first infected the rats, which lived off garbage and sewage. The rats then spread the infection to the humans. Rats were a common sight in the cities, due to the poor sanitary conditions, so no one suspected them (www.tartans.com). In the winter the plague seemed to disappear, but only because fleas were dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims (www.byu.edu). The effects of the plague were devastating. After just five years, twenty-five million people were dead - one third of Europe's population. Once people were infected they infected others very rapidly. As a result, in order to avoid the disease, many fled to the countryside where the lower population density helped to decrease the speed at which the disease spread (www.tartans.com). From a person's time of infection to his or her death was less than one week (www.home.nycap.rr.com). The plague became known as "The Black Death" because of the discoloration of the skin and black enlarged lymph nodes that appeared on the second day of contracting the disease. The term "The Black Death" was not invented until after 1800. Contemporaries called it "the pestilence" (Cantor 7).
To make matters worse, over the course of just six years, seventy-five million people have died. There were about fifteen million in Southwest Asia. Even more about thirty-five million dead in China. Finally, there were about twenty-five million dead in Western Europe. The Middle Ages became so depopulated that the economy changed. In the economy laborers demanded more pay, meanwhile changing their work status. All over was widespread poverty because of the merchants raising their prices heavily.
The Black Death, also know as “bubonic plague” is a disease caused by bacterium Yersinia pestis that spread out to most of Asia, the middle east, and Europe (Benedictow). This outbreak wiped out one-third of the European population placing it under one of the most devastating times in human history. With death tolls adding up and with Europe’s population clustered, the cities growing and sanitation almost nonexistent leads to why Europe was hit the hardest with the plague. Symptoms of the plague caused raging fevers, vomiting and dark painful swellings called “buboes” which caused spots on the skin to turn black and later resulted in death (Book) Villages and cities, rich and poor is wiped out in a matter of days. People panicked and many fled their homes and moved into other cities to keep away from the disease but learned that later spread the disease to their neighbor’s villages and continuing the spread.
During the medieval ages in Europe, an extremely devastating disease that wiped out much of Europe’s population swept through the land. The people were terrified because they did not even know its cause. This plague is most commonly known as the Black Death or Bubonic Plague. The Bubonic Plague changed many laws, left many rhymes in its wake, and was very hard to prevent because of the lack of information about its origin.
When merchants with the disease traveled, it spread from person to person, contaminating even more and more people. Some of the symptoms that people got include large dark splotches on the skin, high fever, vomiting, and severe headaches. Most people who got the disease died within a few days, and doctors that tried to help them often got sick and also died. In 1351, almost no part of Europe had not become infected with the plague.
What were the symptoms of the plague? Was this common to get? Signs of this horrifying disease was fever, severe swelling of lymph-nodes, excessive sneezing, headaches, weaknesses, aches, rapid pulse and fatigue. These were all signs that this disease was coming along. In these times most doctors didnt know hardly anything about it or how to cure it. there was a cure for the symptoms but not the disease itself. This is treated by putting on a warm substance of butter, onion and garlic. Many other remedies also treated these symptoms. Eventually tobacco becomes a well known cure for the
Black Death was a deadly plague that ravaged Europe between 1348 and 1350 and caused unprecedented deaths in the continent. It presented itself in the form of swellings ranging in size from the size of an egg to that of a small apple in the groin, neck, and armpits (Callaway 352). The manifestations of these swellings signaled that the affected person had a life expectancy of less than a week. Having no understanding and no cure for the disease, the society panicked, became bewildered, and debilitated. Boccaccio was a witness to the rampage of the pandemic that caused an estimated 200 million deaths in Europe (Callaway 355). In his work, he describes the devastating effects of the plague, not only on the physical bodies of people and animals, but also on the people’s spiritual, mental, and emotional states. Essentially, the plague has caused extreme suffering that changed people’s was of thinking, acting, and associating with others, and molded a new society with new perceptions of living.
The plague was a nasty thing. Let’s take a look at it from what the Middle Ages people thought of it. In the fourteenth century the plague lasted from 1347 through 1352, five years. It went through Europe and the Middle East which caused ⅓ - ½ of the total population died.People of the Middle Ages had thoughts and ideas about what caused the plague was and where it came from. The University of Paris Medical Report was written by the University of Paris Medical Faculty. According to the University of Paris Medical Faculty the cause of the plague was caused by the sun's corrupted rays and the constellations hitting the water and corrupting the water. The constellations combined with the rays of the sun and exerted their power immensely onto the ocean.
In the mid 13th century Europe was devastated with a disease that wiped out a large portion of their population. This disease was called the plague.The plague was a disease with a name Yersinia Pestis. This disease was spread by fleas on small rodents such as black rats. Black rats were the most accused for the spread of the black plague. Once the flea is on a human it will infect a human by putting infected blood into the humans blood stream. Once infected you would start getting symptoms like high fever, rapid pulse, headache, body aches, and weakness. Your fingers toes and lips would also turn black/blue. The average time to die from the time you start receiving symptoms is 72 hours. Gabrielle de’ Mussi lived in Sicily when they plague broke out. He wrote, “They in turn soon infected their whole families, who in three days succumbed, and were buried in one common grave.”
The contribution of frame narrative in Boccaccio’s Decameron is that it creates an overarching story where Boccaccio criticizes aspects of Italian society after the Black Death hit. These stories were read by all people of Italian society, and his use of frame narration allowed people to enjoy individual stories as a form of entertainment and allowed people more involved with the politics of the city to get an outlook that was different than their own.
Also known as ‘The Black Plague’ or ‘The Bubonic Plague,’ this plague was the worst epidemic ever to hit the European region and parts of the world.