The Bubonic Plague (1330-1351) in Europe has influenced many things, especially in literature. One such work of literature is The Decameron, written by a man who lived during the time of the Bubonic Plague in Florence, Italy named, Giovanni Boccaccio.
Giovanni Boccaccio was born in Paris, France, in 1313 to a businessman and a Frenchwoman. Boccaccio was taken to Florence, Italy by his parents when he was an infant and was sent to Naples, in 1328, to study “commerce in the office of his father’s partner” (Mack 1143). In 1334, he then went to the study of canon law. In 1336, Boccaccio saw and fell in love with a girl named Maria d’Aquino. He portrayed her in some of his works as the woman named Fiammetta. Maria soon deserted Boccaccio …show more content…
He changed his writing “from Italian poetry and prose fiction to Latin works of a scholarly nature” (Mack 1143). “He sheltered Leon Pilatus, inducing him to make the first translation of Homer from Greek. Unlike Petrarch, Boccaccio was devoted to the study of Dante, of whom he wrote a biography; in 1373 he was appointed to a Dante chair or lectureship in Florence” (Mack 1143).
Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron in Florence, Italy in 1353. The Decameron is a book with a total of one hundred short stories all told by the same group of people, three young men and seven women leaving the city of Florence to escape the plague. The leader of this group, known as the king or queen of the day, at the beginning is the oldest woman named Pampinea. She told everyone that she wanted them to take turns telling stories throughout their journey.
The Bubonic Plague was termed the “Black Death” was introduced by a historian named Elizabeth Markham in 1823 and has also been known as the Oriental Plague, the Great Pestilence, and the Great Mortality (Lock). The plague was the “greatest natural disaster in European history” (Gottfried xiii). It most likely began in …show more content…
In Caramania and Caesaria [in Asia Minor] none were left alive” (Gottfried 36). The Black Death devastated not only Italy, but also most of Europe, killing 50 million people, and 25 million of those in just five years.
The Bubonic Plague was dealt with differently by each person. Some people decided to live it up, some decided to leave in order to preserve themselves and their legacies, and some decided that the plague must be some kind of punishment for doing something that they should not have.
The people that decided to live it up only lived for themselves. They drank to excess and enjoyed the pleasures of this life because they figured that they should do what they want since they were most likely going to die anyway. They people who left left to continue to live and to carry on their family names and legacies, as they people in The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio was born in Paris, France, in 1313 to a businessman and a Frenchwoman. Boccaccio was taken to Florence, Italy by his parents when he was an infant and was sent to Naples, in 1328, to study “commerce in the office of his father’s partner” (Mack 1143). In 1334, he then went to the study of canon law. In 1336, Boccaccio saw and fell in love with a girl named Maria d’Aquino. He portrayed her in some of his works as the woman named Fiammetta. Maria soon deserted Boccaccio …show more content…
He changed his writing “from Italian poetry and prose fiction to Latin works of a scholarly nature” (Mack 1143). “He sheltered Leon Pilatus, inducing him to make the first translation of Homer from Greek. Unlike Petrarch, Boccaccio was devoted to the study of Dante, of whom he wrote a biography; in 1373 he was appointed to a Dante chair or lectureship in Florence” (Mack 1143).
Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron in Florence, Italy in 1353. The Decameron is a book with a total of one hundred short stories all told by the same group of people, three young men and seven women leaving the city of Florence to escape the plague. The leader of this group, known as the king or queen of the day, at the beginning is the oldest woman named Pampinea. She told everyone that she wanted them to take turns telling stories throughout their journey.
The Bubonic Plague was termed the “Black Death” was introduced by a historian named Elizabeth Markham in 1823 and has also been known as the Oriental Plague, the Great Pestilence, and the Great Mortality (Lock). The plague was the “greatest natural disaster in European history” (Gottfried xiii). It most likely began in …show more content…
In Caramania and Caesaria [in Asia Minor] none were left alive” (Gottfried 36). The Black Death devastated not only Italy, but also most of Europe, killing 50 million people, and 25 million of those in just five years.
The Bubonic Plague was dealt with differently by each person. Some people decided to live it up, some decided to leave in order to preserve themselves and their legacies, and some decided that the plague must be some kind of punishment for doing something that they should not have.
The people that decided to live it up only lived for themselves. They drank to excess and enjoyed the pleasures of this life because they figured that they should do what they want since they were most likely going to die anyway. They people who left left to continue to live and to carry on their family names and legacies, as they people in The Decameron