Documents and a recent study of the Black Death

Stop Press: I just watched a fascinating documentary on the ABC (our ABC) which aimed to answer the question: why did some people come into contact with the bubonic plague, a deadly and brutal disease, and yet not die? Did they have some kind of genetically conferred immunity? Here’s an article about this program:

GO TO THIS LINK TO READ ABOUT RECENT SCIENCE AND THE BLACK DEATH

If we have time in the next couple of weeks I might show you parts of this documentary in class. It shows some of the symptoms of the plague a little too graphically for my liking, but hey, that’s medieval history for you! It was not an easy time to be alive.

Petrarch: “Oh happy posterity, who will not experience such abysmal woe and will look upon our testimony as a fable.”

The woman Petrarch adored, Laura, died of the Black Death.


The document below is from

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/boccacio2.html

Giovanni_Boccaccio PD Wikimedia CommonsImage of Boccaccio from Wikimedia Commons

The onset of the Black Death was described by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375):

… in the illustrious city of Florence, the fairest of all the cities of Italy, there made its appearance that deadly pestilence, which, whether disseminated by the influence of the celestial bodies, or sent upon us mortals by God in His just wrath by way of retribution for our iniquities, had had its origin some years before in the East…

In Florence, despite all that human wisdom and forethought could devise to avert it, as the cleansing of the city from many impurities by officials appointed for the purpose, the refusal of entrance to all sick folk, and the adoption of many precautions for the preservation of health; despite also humble supplications addressed to God, and often repeated both in public procession and otherwise by the devout; towards the beginning of the spring of the said year the doleful effects of the pestilence began to be horribly apparent…

Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumors in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli. From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, then minute and numerous. And as the gavocciolo had been and still were an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they shewed themselves. …whether it was that the disorder was of a nature to defy…treatment, or that the physicians were at fault – besides the qualified 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; in either case, not merely were those that recovered few, but almost all within three days from the appearance of the said symptoms, sooner or later, died…

  • What does the first paragraph show were common assumptions about the plague?
  • Make a list of all the methods used by the Florentines to stop the plague.
  • Describe the symptoms identified by Boccaccio. Which form of the plague does he appear to be describing?
  • Find out more about Giovanni Boccaccio and his famous book, The Decameron, at http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Giovanni_Boccaccio.aspx
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2 Replies to “Documents and a recent study of the Black Death”

  1. This is so confusing and my computer is so slow!!!!

    I’m typing this up and its appearing on the screen fives seconds after i read it!!

    Grrrr……

  2. i would like to learn about ninjas as they are really awesome and interesting.
    i find wacky inventions people think of really funny!

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