Introduction


Giovanni Boccaccio, author of The Decameron
Imagine waking up one morning and hearing your brother or sister complain of a headache. By the end of the week, you are the only one in your family left alive. Even worse, you are the only one of a very few in your town left alive. This story repeated itself over and over again throughout medieval Europe as the Black Death—the bubonic plaque—swept the continent from 1347 to 1352. Named for the black swellings called “buboes” that covered the bodies of the afflicted, the plaque wiped out one-third to one-half of Europe’s population and ushered in massive religious, economic, and social changes as the remaining population adjusted to the shock of losing an estimated 25 million people in a period of just five years.

Essential Facts

  1. There were actually three forms of the plague: the most common bubonic plague, which killed in an average of five to seven days; the pneumonic plague, which attacked the lungs and also killed in less than a week; and septicemic plague, which entered the bloodstream and could kill in less than a day.
  2. The fear and panic brought on by the plague is perhaps best described by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio: “Such terror was struck into the hearts of men and women by this calamity, that brother abandoned brother, and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother, and very often the wife her husband. What is even worse and nearly incredible is that fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been theirs.”
  3. Since the causes of the Black Death were not understood at the time, many felt that the plague was a divine judgment. This belief led to the formation of the flagellants, bands of people who roamed the countryside whipping themselves in public penance hoping to assuage the anger of God. Although not approved by the church, the flagellants’ wild performance helped bring catharsis to the grieving multitudes.
  4. Florence, Italy, was particularly hard hit by the plague: its population fell from 120,000 inhabitants in 1338 to 50,000 inhabitants in 1351.
  5. The plague essentially brought about the end of the medieval manorial system that tied serfs to the land. The lack of workers made them valuable and enabled the former serfs to gain rights they never could have had in a highly populated culture.