COPYRIGHT FURTHER READING SOURCES CREDITS ABOUT THE PROJECT END AND AFTERMATH OF THE PLAGUE PLAGUE AND RELIGION FORTY DAYS WHERE DID IT COME FROM? WHAT DID IT DO? WHAT WAS IT? PATHOGEN PROFILE EFFECTS ON SOCIETY SOURCE ANALYSIS MEDICAL TOOLS & KNOWLEDGE FORTY DAYS KEY PEOPLE OF THE AGE TIMELINE OF MAIN EVENTS EUROPE IN 14TH CENTURY FORTY DAYS
COPYRIGHT FURTHER READING SOURCES CREDITS ABOUT THE BOOK END AND AFTERMATH OF THE PLAGUE PLAGUE AND RELIGION FORTY DAYS WHERE DID IT COME FROM? WHAT DID IT DO? WHAT WAS IT? PATHOGEN PROFILE EFFECTS ON SOCIETY SOURCE ANALYSIS MEDICAL TOOLS & KNOWLEDGE FORTY DAYS KEY PEOPLE OF THE AGE TIMELINE OF MAIN EVENTS EUROPE IN 14TH CENTURY FORTY DAYS
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Black Death Interactive / Medical Tools & Knowledge
Source Analysis: The Decameron
INTRO

Born in Certaldo, a small town under the control of the Republic of Florence, Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the leading figures in Italian literary culture, including both poetry and prose. Like other famous Italian writers of the 14th century, including Dante and Petrarch, Boccaccio wrote the majority of his works in the Tuscan vernacular (although he also used Latin). Together, the three are sometimes referred to as the ‘Three Crowns’ of Italian literature. Boccaccio was an important figure in the emerging humanist movement, along with Petrarch.

His best-known work is The Decameron, which was composed sometime between 1349 and 1353. It is sometimes referred to as l’Umana commedia (‘The Human Comedy’), because Boccaccio is responsible for first defining Dante’s own work as ‘The Divine Comedy’. The work is presented as a series of 100 short stories, told by a group of seven women and three men. The group have fled from Florence to a villa in Fiesole to avoid the Black Death which is ravaging the Republic, and they are telling the stories to pass the time. The stories presented by Boccaccio are drawn from an array of sources, ranging from India and the Middle East, through to Classical Antiquity. Thematically, they are concerned with love (erotic and romantic), wit and wisdom, and tragedy. Fortune, and the vicissitudes of life, are an important theme throughout the work.

Boccaccio’s Decameron is also famous for its strikingly graphic description of the plague that devastated Florence in the mid-14th century. His description is used to introduce the entire text, and it can provide insight into the effects of the plague on medieval society.

INTRO

Yet not as it had done in the East, where, if any bled at the nose, it was a manifest sign of inevitable death; nay, but in men and women alike there appeared, at the beginning of the malady, certain swellings, either on the groin or under the armpits, whereof some waxed of the bigness of a common apple, others like unto an egg, some more and some less, and these the vulgar named gavoccioli [plague-boils].

From these two parts the aforesaid death-bearing plague-boils proceeded, in brief space, to appear and come indifferently in every part of the body; wherefrom, after awhile, the fashion of the contagion began to change into black or livid blotches, which showed themselves in many [first] on the arms and about the thighs and [after spread to] every other part of the person, in some large and sparse and in others small and thick-sown; and like as the plague-boils had been first (and yet were) a very certain token of coming death, even so were these for every one to whom they came.

Black Death Interactive / Medical Tools & Knowledge
Source Analysis: The Decameron
#1 SYMPTOMS AND SPREAD

Here, Boccaccio describes the symptoms of the disease that ravaged the city of Florence. It is the only instance in the text where the author describes the disease in any great detail. Although the description is vivid, it does not present a comprehensive observation or catalogue of all of the plague’s effects.

His account presents a very clear indication that the vast majority of those suffering from the malady were victims of bubonic plague (Yersina pestis). He provides a graphic description of the buboes (which the common Florentines called gavoccioli), and how they would begin to spread from their initial sites in the groins and armpits around the body. His description also notes that the patient’s skin could appear to change colour. Boccaccio presents an awareness of the origins of the plague from the East, and it is widely believed now that it was introduced into Italy by sailors and merchants returning to the peninsula from the city of Kaffa in the Crimea.

Notably, Boccaccio also describes nosebleeds as a symptom of the plague and suggests that this was unique to the plague in Italy. It is possible that the author is describing the septicaemic form of the plague, which was exceptionally fatal to those unfortunate enough to contract it.

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#1

Nay, the mischief was yet greater; for that not only did converse and consortion with the sick give to the sound infection of cause of common death, but the mere touching of the clothes or of whatsoever other thing had been touched or used of the sick appeared of itself to communicate the malady to the toucher. A marvellous thing to hear is that which I have to tell and one which, had it not been seen of many men's eyes and of mine own.

Of this mine own eyes (as hath a little before been said) had one day, among others, experience on this wise; to wit, that the rags of a poor man, who had died of the plague, being cast out into the public way, two hogs came up to them and having first, after their wont, rooted amain among them with their snouts, took them in their mouths and tossed them about their jaws; then, in a little while, after turning round and round, they both, as if they had taken poison, fell down dead upon the rags with which they had in an ill hour intermeddled.

Black Death Interactive / Medical Tools & Knowledge
Source Analysis: The Decameron
#2 BOCCACCIO THE EYEWITNESS?

This section of the Decameron is particularly interesting because it presents the reader with Boccaccio the eyewitness. This is important because it helps validate Boccaccio’s description of the spread of the plague and its symptoms.

This passage is especially important because Boccaccio describes the transmission of the plague. He describes how people could fall victim to the disease through conversation with someone who had it, but also through merely touching the same things they did. This is crucial. Although Boccaccio obviously had no knowledge that the disease was spread by bacteria he couldn’t see, there is a clear awareness of how easily it could be spread by being in close proximity to patients.

As part of his eyewitness testimony, Boccaccio includes the striking anecdote about the peril the plague posed to Italy’s other residents: two hogs reputedly fall victim to the disease almost instantly after coming into contact with the corpse of a human plague victim. Allegedly, the hogs died almost instantly, as though poisoned. This is where the credibility of Boccaccio appears to be stretched; although his account remains invaluable, we must not lose sight of the fact this was a work of literature to entertain and enthral its readers.

#2

A very barbarous conclusion, namely, to shun and flee from the sick and all that pertained to them, and thus doing, each thought to secure immunity for himself. Some there were who conceived that to live moderately and keep oneself from all excess was the best defence against such a danger; wherefore, making up their company, they lived removed from every other and shut themselves up in those houses where none had been sick and where living was best; and there, using very temperately of the most delicate viands and the finest wines and eschewing all incontinence, they abode with music and such other diversions as they might have, never suffering themselves to speak with any nor choosing to hear any news from without of death or sick folk.

Others, inclining to the contrary opinion, maintained that to carouse and make merry and go about singing and frolicking and satisfy the appetite in everything possible and laugh and scoff at whatsoever befell was a very certain remedy for such an ill. That which they said they put in practice as best they might, going about day and night, now to this tavern, now to that, drinking without stint or measure; and on this wise they did yet more freely in other folk's houses, so but they scented there aught that liked or tempted them, as they might lightly do, for that every one—as he were to live no longer—had abandoned all care of his possessions, as of himself, wherefore the most part of the houses were become common good and strangers used them, when as they happened upon them, like as the very owner might have done; and with all this bestial preoccupation, they still shunned the sick to the best of their power.

Black Death Interactive / Medical Tools & Knowledge
Source Analysis: The Decameron
#3 APPROACHES TO THE PLAGUE

In this passage, Boccaccio describes two different approaches to combating the effects of the plague. The first of these is especially interesting as it may be related to other ideas about health and the body. Boccaccio notes that some people attempted to adhere to strict principles of moderation. Isolating themselves from society, these people attempt to avoid excesses. He notes they enjoyed meat (viands) and wines only in moderation. Some appear to have been even more ascetic, eschewing other enjoyments in life such as music. The attempt to live in moderation may reflect a belief in the Theory of the Four Humours and the Theory of Opposites, outlined by Hippocrates and Galen. By eating and drinking in moderation, people may have been attempting to keep their humours (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm) in balance. More generally, living in moderation had a long history as a philosophical approach to life (known as sophrosyne in ancient Greek, meaning prudence and self-control).

The second approach appears to suggest that people sought to enjoy a hedonistic release from the terrors and pressures of living alongside the plague. Boccaccio describes how they frequented the taverns without concern, and lived life to the fullest. In both approaches, it is important to note that Boccaccio reminds his reader of the cost to society. Those who were sick were effectively abandoned, isolated from support and help because no one knew what was best to do otherwise.

#3

The condition of the common people (and belike, in great part, of the middle class also) was yet more pitiable to behold, for that these, for the most part retained by hope or poverty in their houses and abiding in their own quarters, sickened by the thousand daily and being altogether untended and unsuccored, died well nigh all without recourse. Many breathed their last in the open street, whilst other many, for all they died in their houses, made it known to the neighbours that they were dead rather by the stench of their rotting bodies than otherwise; and of these and others who died all about the whole city was full.

Black Death Interactive / Medical Tools & Knowledge
Source Analysis: The Decameron
#4 DYING IN THE STREETS: THE PLIGHT OF THE PEASANTS

In this passage, Boccaccio again offers a graphic description of the horrors of life in the time of the Black Death. In particular, he is at pains to describe the appalling conditions endured by the peasants and urban poor who were living in Florence in the mid-14th century.

Boccaccio’s narrative begins by noting that the disease did not discriminate, spreading among the middle classes just as readily. However, because of the population density among the urban poor "in their own quarters", the disease was able to rapidly spread. He even suggests that it infected up to 1,000 people daily at its worst. Because of this, they were left untended, and many died – often in the street. Perhaps, he notes that many people only became aware of the fate of their neighbours when the stench of their corpses began to make itself known. Boccaccio’s vivid account presents the plague as an assault on the senses as much as the fabric of Florentine society.

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#4

How many memorable families, how many ample heritages, how many famous fortunes were seen to remain without lawful heir! How many valiant men, how many fair ladies, how many sprightly youths, whom, not others only, but Galen, Hippocrates or Æsculapius themselves would have judged most hale, breakfasted in the morning with their kinsfolk, comrades and friends and that same night supped with their ancestors in the other world!

Black Death Interactive / Medical Tools & Knowledge
Source Analysis: The Decameron
#5 BOCCACCIO AND ANTIQUITY

Boccaccio’s description of the devastating effect of the plague on the Republic of Florence concludes with by reemphasising that the disease was indiscriminate. In other words, it infected and killed anyone, regardless of age and gender. This contributed to the terror spread by Black Death, and helped spread the competing beliefs in what caused it and how best to treat it.

The account also ends with a telling insight into the culture in which Boccaccio was now writing and also helping to establish. He notes that even people judged to be healthy by "Galen, Hippocrates, and Aesclepius" found themselves victims of the plague. Boccaccio is here drawing on Classical Greco-Roman culture to emphasise his point, citing three sources of medical authority from the ancient world: Galen, a Roman Doctor, Hippocrates, the ancient Greek doctor and Father of Medicine, and Aesclepius, the god of healing in the Greco-Roman pantheon. It is important to note that Boccaccio was a humanist. Together with other writers and cultural figures in the 14th century, he would help spark a revived interest in the cultures and ideas of the ancient world. In time, this would lead to the Renaissance, the "rebirth". As well as arts and culture, this would go on to have significant impacts on medicine in the coming centuries.

#5