During the end of 1347 Italy experienced the beginning of the most lethal outbreak of disease to ever enter its land. This disease is known as the Black Death. It is believed that the Black Death was brought on by an animal epidemic. In the Middle Ages people believed that it was rats that were the ones infecting the people, when in fact they were just helping transport the real culprit from place to place. It was the flea that carried this terrible disease from Asia. Rats were often found on ships that traveled from Asia to Europe and the fleas found their way to Europe by using the rats as their host. When the fleas got tired of rat blood, they moved on to humans, thus starting the epidemic. It is estimated by historians that Europe lost
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People began to fall ill quickly and the mortality rate rose steadily. In an attempt to save themselves from the Black Death, some people tried to watch their diet and seclude themselves. Others gave into temptation and threw caution to the wind. Giovanni Boccaccio wrote about life during the Black Death saying, “The scourge implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands.” What Boccaccio wrote that was even worse than was, “Fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children, as though they did not belong to them.” Children of all ages, young and older, were being left by their parents. Some parents left for fear of catching the illness from the children, some because they did not want to get their children sick, and some left because they were just so afraid. If the kids did not die from the Black Death, it was probably common that they died of …show more content…
It was more common for grandparents to leave more for their granddaughters in their will than parents to their daughters. An example of this is revealed to us in a will written for an elite wife during the Black Death. Phylippa, the wife of the butcher Philippinus Laurentii, left 40 lire to her two granddaughters and nothing to her grandsons. In her will she states, “ She leaves her daughter, Chadiana, 25 lire, which she can have after the death of her father, ordering Chadiana and the grandchildren Nicolaus and his siblings to be quiet and content with the legacies.” The legacies left to her grandsons are all that they have been granted by being named the universal heirs of both their mother and father. The will of Philippinus Laurentii, husband of Phylippa, also demonstrates this. In the will of Philippinus its states, “He leaves 50 lire for Zoleta, Cola, Bencevenis, and Nicolaus, his grandchildren and children of his deceased daughter and Francischinus de Medicis.” Grandparents left their grandchildren more in their will than they did for their children to make up for the little amount that the parents of the grandchildren left for
People began to fall ill quickly and the mortality rate rose steadily. In an attempt to save themselves from the Black Death, some people tried to watch their diet and seclude themselves. Others gave into temptation and threw caution to the wind. Giovanni Boccaccio wrote about life during the Black Death saying, “The scourge implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands.” What Boccaccio wrote that was even worse than was, “Fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children, as though they did not belong to them.” Children of all ages, young and older, were being left by their parents. Some parents left for fear of catching the illness from the children, some because they did not want to get their children sick, and some left because they were just so afraid. If the kids did not die from the Black Death, it was probably common that they died of …show more content…
It was more common for grandparents to leave more for their granddaughters in their will than parents to their daughters. An example of this is revealed to us in a will written for an elite wife during the Black Death. Phylippa, the wife of the butcher Philippinus Laurentii, left 40 lire to her two granddaughters and nothing to her grandsons. In her will she states, “ She leaves her daughter, Chadiana, 25 lire, which she can have after the death of her father, ordering Chadiana and the grandchildren Nicolaus and his siblings to be quiet and content with the legacies.” The legacies left to her grandsons are all that they have been granted by being named the universal heirs of both their mother and father. The will of Philippinus Laurentii, husband of Phylippa, also demonstrates this. In the will of Philippinus its states, “He leaves 50 lire for Zoleta, Cola, Bencevenis, and Nicolaus, his grandchildren and children of his deceased daughter and Francischinus de Medicis.” Grandparents left their grandchildren more in their will than they did for their children to make up for the little amount that the parents of the grandchildren left for