The Black Plague
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In general, the plague pandemic of 1347-1350 was one of the worst disasters to ever affect the human race. The tragic events of those years events of those years are said to have marked the opening of a period of almost four centuries in which Europe and the Middle East were struck by repeated outbreaks of the same disease. By the end of 1348, the plague had covered all of Italy and most of France, crossing the Alps from Italy into Switzerland as well. England was then affected, as were Germany, Scandinavia, and parts of Russia. Increased trade during the period was largely responsible for transmission of the plague, ôentering port cities and then moving inland as goods and infected humans were disseminatedö (Marks, 1971, 55).Giovanni Villani (1961) claimed that the Black Death (also known as the Black Plague) had reached Florence in late 1346, killing a total of around 4,000 people, and then diminishing in the winter of 1348 (237). The pre-plague period suffered from famine that erupted in social unrest that was dramatically exacerbated during the period when the pestilence moved through the city. The already weakened inhabitants of Florence were rendered even more vulnerable to the plague. The poor sanitation conditions of Florence were also responsible for creating a prime breeding ground for the plague and its transmission. The plague, unlike other social phenomena of the era, made no
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aking an already bad situation worse.
Medical science was totally unprepared to provide relief to the sick and dying or to halt the spread of infection. Most victims died within three days of the appearance of fatal signs such as swelling in the groin or armpit. Animals, running wild in the streets, rooted in the cast-off clothing and among the corpses of the dead; it is probably, says Marks (1971), that these animals assisted in spreading the disease among the Florentine population (57). A distinct decline in learning, due in part to the deaths of intellectuals and scholars, continued for a substantial period of time after the disease abated.
Economic restructuring also took place in the years after the plague, which made possible the creation of a new class of entrepreneurial merchants. This new class or merchants included a substantial number of nobles and changed aristocracy. Given that the wealth of the landed classes depended upon their capacity to engage the peasantry in productive work, the lack of adequate workers impoverished many of the hereditary nobility, leaving them land-rich but cash poor. Spiritually, the Black Plague also had devastating consequences. Boccaccio (1965) wrote that as the plague continued,
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Approximate Word count = 1732
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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