The Eyewitness Account Of Death By Marilyn Migiel
The eyewitness account of the plague in Florence, Italy in 1384, talked about by Marilyn Migiel, was the author of the Decameron himself. Giovanni Boccaccio’s account of the plague is seemingly an eyewitness account because he “filtered his stories through other literary and historical descriptions of plagues” (Migiel 17). Boccaccio describes the plague as having baffling symptoms, the certainty of death, the overbearing presence of death and the dying, the procedures for trying to avoid the plague, the forsaken cities, and the effects on morals and decency (Migiel 17).
In a translation about the plague, Paul Deacon said, “In the times of this man a very great pestilence broke out, particularly in the province of Liguria. For suddenly
there appeared certain marks among dwellings, doors, utensils, and clothes, which if any one wished to wash away, became more apparent. After the lapse of a year indeed there began to appear in the groins of men and other rather delicate places, a swelling of the glands, after the manner of a nut or date, presently followed by an unbearable fever, so that upon the third day the man died. But if any one should pass over the third day he had a hope of living” (Migiel 17).
The time of the Bubonic Plague was a horrible time. People were abandoned by their families and friends: children, parents, neighbors, husbands, wives, grandparents. When a person died during the earlier part of the plague, the priest was able to come and give last rites to them, but toward the end of the plague, there were not enough people to be able to perform the last rites. The person was then given to gravedigger of the lower class, called Becchini, who put the people in carts and took them to be buried in mass graves or ditches when there was not enough time to dig graves because they had to go and pick up some more of the dead.
Giovanni Boccaccio was alive and in Florence, Italy during the time of the plague. He may have written the stories in the Decameron to provide entertainment for people and to help them remember the horrific details of the Bubonic plague and the consequences of it, on both the people living during that time and their ancestors. The Bubonic Plague affected not just Florence, Italy but also most of Europe.
In a translation about the plague, Paul Deacon said, “In the times of this man a very great pestilence broke out, particularly in the province of Liguria. For suddenly
there appeared certain marks among dwellings, doors, utensils, and clothes, which if any one wished to wash away, became more apparent. After the lapse of a year indeed there began to appear in the groins of men and other rather delicate places, a swelling of the glands, after the manner of a nut or date, presently followed by an unbearable fever, so that upon the third day the man died. But if any one should pass over the third day he had a hope of living” (Migiel 17).
The time of the Bubonic Plague was a horrible time. People were abandoned by their families and friends: children, parents, neighbors, husbands, wives, grandparents. When a person died during the earlier part of the plague, the priest was able to come and give last rites to them, but toward the end of the plague, there were not enough people to be able to perform the last rites. The person was then given to gravedigger of the lower class, called Becchini, who put the people in carts and took them to be buried in mass graves or ditches when there was not enough time to dig graves because they had to go and pick up some more of the dead.
Giovanni Boccaccio was alive and in Florence, Italy during the time of the plague. He may have written the stories in the Decameron to provide entertainment for people and to help them remember the horrific details of the Bubonic plague and the consequences of it, on both the people living during that time and their ancestors. The Bubonic Plague affected not just Florence, Italy but also most of Europe.