Medieval Plague, Modern Pandemic: The First Day“What was the Black Death and its immediate impacts?”
Channel: Roger L. Martínez-Davila
Date: 2020-04-14

Medieval Plague, Modern Pandemic

Lecture: The First Day

The Italian Renaissance humanist Giovanni Boccacio penned his mid-fourteenth century collection of novellas, Decameron, in the midst of the Black Death of 1347 to 1353. In his “Proem”, he writes:

“Let me say, then, that one thousand, three hundred, and forty-eight years had passed since the fruitful Incarnation of the Son of God when the deadly plague arrived in the noble city of Florence, the most beautiful of any in Italy.” 

Although these words and their phrasing are antiquarian – we understand their meaning. A devastating disease descended on Florence and now invaded all of Europe.

Today we will follow in the steps of Boccacio – emulating the literary structure of his Decameron that spins its stories over the course of ten days. These lectures will follow the form of Boccacio – ten days, ten lectures.

Boccacio frames Decameron’s 100 stories by creating the literary device of a group of young men and women sequestered in a countryside as the flee the plague in Florence. To entertain and educate each other, both were purposes that were crucial to the medieval reader, this mixed sex brigata shared their stories over the course of a fortnight (or two weeks). The stories explored many themes that bridged the medieval world to the Renaissance – fortune and intelligence, love and sex, ingenuity and deception, religion and morality – to name just a few themes. 

In later lectures we will return to the innovating nature of Decameron, but this week, we will begin our “First Day” by examining, understanding, and reflecting on the past and present. 

We will ask on this day, “What was the Black Death and what were the immediate societal impacts of the plague from 1347 to 1353?”

The First Day:

*Three Plagues
*Tracking the Disease – From Crimea to Italy 
*Genoa – Welcome Home, Swollen Bodies, and Words of Comfort