Merchant ships fleeing the city went first to Sicily, then Marseilles and Valencia, infecting them, and the plague then spread across Europe. To entertain themselves, they tell the stories which make up the bulk of the book. Books Stream Boccaccio on the Black Death: Text & Commentary by Ancient History Encyclopedia from desktop or your mobile device And the evil of the plague went even further: not only did talking to or being around the sick bring infection and a common death, but also touching the clothes of the sick or anything touched or used by them seemed to communicate this very disease to the person involved…. The outbreak of plague in Europe between 1347-1352 CE – known... Internet History Sourcebooks Project: Boccaccio's Introduction to The Decameron, The Origin Of The Word ‘Quarantine’ by Johanna Mayer. De epidemie werd veroorzaakt door de pestbacterie en kostte wereldwijd tussen de 75 en 200 miljoen mensen het leven. This plague annihilated one third of its original population. By 1346, he is thought to have moved to the city of Ravenna. Giovanni Boccaccio likely did not witness the Black Death in Florence, as his introduction in The Decameron would have readers believe. They did not shut themselves up, but went around carrying in their hands flowers, or sweet-smelling herbs, or various kinds of spices; and they would often put these things to their noses, believing that such smells were a wonderful means of purifying the brain, for all the air seemed infected with the stench of dead bodies, sickness, and medicines…. The outbreak would completely alter the European social structure as well as the belief systems of many of those who survived it. Boccaccio on the Black Death: Text & Commentary. This was the Black Death and its terrible progress was captured by the Florentine writer Giovanni Boccaccio who declared “in those years a dead man was then of … While some critics interpret depictions of the plague within The Decameron, others argue that Boccaccio’s merchant portrayals are more favorable than in previous literature. Giovanni Boccaccio & Florentines Who Have Fled from the Plagueby Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Public Domain). Web. Boccaccio and the Black Death have been doing the rounds, of course. This work features ten young people – seven women and three men – who have fled Florence during the plague and taken shelter in a villa in the countryside. Bibliography Afterwards, it died down again until 1332 CE and broke out fully in 1346 CE before traveling to Europe. (2020, April 03). What we now call the Black Death – the first great outbreak of the bubonic plague – killed at least one third and perhaps as much as a half of Europe’s population in the mid-14th century. Others thought the opposite: they believed that drinking excessively, enjoying life, going about singing and celebrating, satisfying in every way the appetites as best one could, laughing, and making light of everything that happened was the best medicine for such a disease; so they practiced to the fullest what they believed by going from one tavern to another all day and night, drinking to excess; and they would often make merry in private homes, doing everything that pleased or amused them the most. The account has been edited for space with omissions indicated by ellipses. Boccaccio, G; translated by Mark Musa & Peter Bondanella. He also goes on to portray the devastating effects of death on, not only the physical bodies of people and animals, but also on their mental, emotional, and spiritual states, and how this accelerated their acceptance of the rising merchant mentality of more utilitarian values. Main; Themes & Motifs; The Representation of Collective Death in the Decameron; The Representation of Collective Death in the Decameron. And just as the gavoccioli were originally, and still are, a very definite indication of impending death, in like manner these spots came to mean the same thing for whoever contracted them. The plague was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis which was carried by the fleas of rodents, primarily rats, who were transported between regions through trade or by troops returning from or heading toward deployment. Although it is by no means the only remaining description of the Black Plague of 1348, Boccaccio's account in the Decameron is probably the most well known portrayal among medieval historians and literary critics. Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) are foremost among the early Human i sts at the very outset of what would later become known as the Renaissance. Giovanni Boccaccio gives the readers a description of the onset of the Black Death that offers a clear understanding of the events as they unfolded during that particular period. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75) was, like his maestro Dante, a Florentine. The city was full of corpses…Moreover, the dead were honored with no tears or candles or funeral mourners; in fact, things had reached such a point that the people who died were cared for as we care for goats today…So many corpses would arrive in front of a church every day and at every hour that the amount of holy ground for burials was certainly insufficient for the ancient custom of giving each body its individual place; when all the graves were full, huge trenches were dug in all of the cemeteries of the churches and into them the new arrivals were dumped by the hundreds; and they were packed in there with dirt, one on top of another, like a ship's cargo, until the trench was filled…. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made. Many ended their lives in the public streets, during the day or at night, while many others who died in their homes were discovered dead by their neighbors only by the smell of their decomposing bodies. About | According to Boccaccio’s narrative, this pestilence compelled a group of young friends, seven women and three men, to fl ee death-ridden Florence The pandemic was to eventually kill one person in three in Europe. The point-of-origin most scholars agree on are the Genoese ships from the port city of Caffa (also given as Kaffa) on the Black Sea (modern-day Feodosia in Crimea). The disease was therefore attributed to God's wrath, primarily, although marginal communities – such as the Jews – were also singled out as the cause and persecuted accordingly. Binghamton, New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1982. pp 39-64. The Black Death in England, 1348 In this year there was a general mortality among men throughout the world. The Black Death is the name given to the plague outbreak in Europe between 1347-1352 CE. The term was only coined after 1800 CE in reference to the black buboes (growths) which erupted in the groin, armpit, and around the ears of those infected as the plague struck the lymph nodes; people of the time referred to it as “the pestilence” among other terms. 3 Boccaccio, The Decameron , 7. In The Decameron, Boccaccio depicts the outbreak’s high-mortality rates and how that was a catalyst for many social and cultural changes within fourteenth-century Europe. And against this pestilence no human wisdom or foresight was of any avail; quantities of filth were removed from the city by officials charged with the task; the entry of any sick person into the city was prohibited; and many directives were issued concerning the maintenance of good health. The Black Death was particularly virulent in the Tuscan capital, where it killed three-quarters of the population. In the first chapter, before introducing the characters, he describes how the plague struck the city of Florence in 1348 CE, how people reacted, and the staggering death toll which would finally amount to between 30-50 million before it wore itself out. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Most responses, however, were aimed at appeasing the anger of God and there were few practical efforts – at least at first – towards controlling the spread of the disease. The onset of the Black Death, was described by Giovanni Boccaccio ( 1313-1375) Boccaccio witnessed the spread of the plague through the city of Florence in 1348. Religious responses to the plague were numerous and included public processions of flagellants who would pass through cities, towns, villages, and fields whipping themselves while begging God for forgiveness of humanity's sins. "Boccaccio on the Black Death: Text & Commentary." Scholar Don Nardo notes this in citing the medieval Italian writer Tommaso del Garbo who offered practical advice for people entering the homes of the infected: Notaries, confessors, relations, and doctors who visit plague victims, on entering their houses, should open the windows so that the air is renewed and wash their hands with vinegar and rose water and also their faces, especially around their mouth and nostrils. Martin’s, 2017). Ancient History Encyclopedia. The city was hurt further in 1348 by the Black Death, which killed some three-quarters of the city's population, later represented in the Decameron. Recent scholarship, most notably that of Samuel Kline Cohn, Jr., has repeated Boccaccio’s portrayal of the doctors during the Black Death as futile and helpless. Mark, published on 03 April 2020 under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. The introduction to The Decameron, which details the outbreak in the city, is given by the narrator of the work as background before the appearance of the ten main characters, all of whom meet at an empty church in the city in the midst of the plague before deciding to leave for the country. However, he would have likely received updates and descriptions of the … Thank you! The following comes from The Decameron as translated by Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella, 1982 CE. In Boccaccio’s “The Decameron” (1353) ten young people seek refuge from the monotony and misery of the plague as it ravages their city of Florence, by gathering together in a country house to tell each other stories. De pestepidemie greep in de rampzalige veertiende eeuw met politieke en religieuze instabiliteit en grondige klimaatveranderingen … "Boccaccio on the Black Death: Text & Commentary." The framework of the Decameron serves to show the drastic cultural shifts occurring, in part due to the pestilence, that further spur forward the acceptance of this rising merchant class in society. HistoryWiz Primary Source. 915, The Black Death and Giovanni Bocaccio's The Decameron's Portrayal of Merchant Mentality, European History, European Studies, History, Language Arts, Literature, Medieval History, Medieval Literature, Middle Ages. When soldiers died, Djanibek ordered their corpses catapulted over the walls of Caffa, and this is thought to have infected the city's population. Giovanni Boccaccio, sometimes considered the father of the European novel, was the illegitimate son of a fourteenth century Florentine businessman and passed his childhood in Tuscany in and about Florence. > This they were able to do easily, for everyone felt he was doomed to die and, as a result, abandoned his property, so that most of the houses had become common property, and any stranger who came upon them used them as if her were their rightful owner…, Many others adopted a middle course between the two attitudes just described: neither did they restrict their food or drink so much as the first group nor did they fall into such dissoluteness and drunkenness as the second; rather, they satisfied their appetites to a moderate degree. Boccaccio’s bawdy Black Death tales will take your mind off coronavirus. There were some people who thought that living moderately and avoiding any excess might help a great deal in resisting this disease, and so they gathered in small groups and lived entirely apart from everyone else. Giovanni Boccaccio was a contemporary witness to the effects of the Black Death pandemic, the Yersinia pestis bacterial pandemic in Europe between the years 1346-53, causing 75 million to 200 million deaths across the continent alone. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. With your help we create free content that helps millions of people learn history all around the world. Home The plague entered Europe from the East via Genoese trading ships but is also thought to have possibly been spread along the Silk Road trade routes. His father worked in finance and trade and held the government position of Minister of Supply before dying, probably of plague, in 1349 CE, the same year Boccaccio would begin writing The Decameron. Here in London, when lockdown became inevitable, plenty of those who could left, like Boccaccio’s ten storytellers in The Decameron, who retreat from Florence, for quiet places in the country. It is a detailed description of life in the middle ages, specifically the effects of the Black Death or Bubonic Plague.. A freelance writer and former part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, Joshua J. We have also been recommended for educational use by the following publications: Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. Let me say, then, that thirteen hundred and forty-eight years had already passed after the fruitful Incarnation of the Son of God when into the distinguished city of Florence…there came a deadly pestilence. What more can one say except that so great was the cruelty of Heaven, and, perhaps, also that of man, that from March to July of the same year, between the fury of the pestiferous sickness and the fact that many of the sick were badly treated or abandoned in need because of the fear that the healthy had, more than one hundred thousand human beings are believed to have lost their lives for certain inside the walls of the city of Florence – whereas before the deadly plague, one would not even have estimated there were actually that many people dwelling in the city. Mark has lived in Greece and Germany and traveled through Egypt. The perceived failure of religion to stop, or at least alleviate, the suffering and death of the plague turned many away from the medieval Church to seek answers elsewhere; an impulse which would eventually give rise to the humanistic worldview of the Renaissance. Although Boccaccio claims that the first symptom of the disease is the appearance of buboes, most records of the plague indicate that it began with fever, then body aches and fatigue, and then the buboes breaking out on the body. This is an erroneous interpretation, as there is indisputable evidence of professionalism and practicality in the tractates of 1348. These two great literary geniuses stood with one foot in the medieval world and one foot in the modern one, the great watershed between the two being what they would have called the Great Morality — the Black Death. My Account | (Boston, MA: Bedford/St. The Black Death 1348 by Giovanni Boccaccio. Then, when leaving the room, you should douse yourself and your pulses with a sponge soaked in vinegar. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/article/1537/. De Zwarte Dood is de epidemie die van 1347 tot 1352 in Europa woedde en vele slachtoffers maakte, soms tientallen procenten van de bevolking. Chapter 14. Accessibility Statement. The disease had been taking a significant toll in the East since at least 562 CE – thought to be a continuation of the Plague of Justinian (541-542 CE and afterwards) – quieted down in 749 CE, and flared up again in 1218 CE. The Ancient History Encyclopedia logo is a registered EU trademark. Giovanni Boccaccio was a contemporary witness to the effects of the Black Death pandemic, the Yersinia pestis bacterial pandemic in Europe between the years 1346-53, causing 75 million to 200 million deaths across the continent alone. Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 unleashing a rampage of death across Europe unprecedented in recorded history. Boccaccio's observation that religious supplications were of no use is reported by other sources on the plague which, like his, make clear that there was no other response which was any more useful. By the time the epidemic played itself out three years later, anywhere between 25% and 50% of Europe's population had fallen victim to the pestilence. FAQ | Ferrante, Joan M. "The Frame Characters of the Decameron: A Progression of Virtues." It is also a good idea before entering the room to place in your mouth several cloves and eat two slices of bread soaked in the best wine and then drink the rest of the wine. The port city of Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik, Croatia), which at that time was controlled by Venice, was the first to implement practical measures along these lines by isolating ships for thirty days under the policy of trentino (30 days) which was later extended to forty days under the law of quarantino (40 days) which gives English its word quarantine. It was one of the most tragic epidemics that has happened in the world. Neither a doctor's advice nor the strength of medicine could do anything to cure this illness; on the contrary, either the nature of the illness was such that it afforded no cure, or else the doctors were so ignorant that they did not recognize its cause and, as a result, could not prescribe the proper remedy (in fact, the number of doctors, other than the well-trained, was increased by a large number of men and women who had never had any medical training); at any rate, few of the sick were ever cured, and almost all died after the third day of the appearance of the previously described symptoms (some sooner, others later), and most of them died without fever or any other side effects.