Giovanni Boccaccio

factors also played a role in making the Renaissance possible. People including the Medici family, who were patrons for many Renaissance artists, made Renaissance art possible. Moreover, philosophers who were alive at the time, including Petrarch and Boccaccio, helped lead the Humanist movements which would encourage separation from the Church. Although it is true that the Black Death was not solely responsible for the Renaissance, the effects of this disease contributed to a huge portion of the…

groups, the dead, and the living. As poet and writer Giovanni Boccaccio explains from his firsthand point of view in 1535, Society was divided as “One citizen avoided another, hardly any neighbour troubled about others, relatives never or hardly ever visited each other.” this is apparent even in their families where “brother abandoned brother, and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother, and very often the wife her husband” (Boccaccio). The backstabbing that was going down in many…

In the Renaissance, the church was a huge figure in politics, but it wasn’t until Giovanni Boccaccio, author of “The Decameron” (one of his greatest works) made contributions to what we now refer to as “Realism.” He deviated from the Renaissance norms of creating characters who dealt with larger than life issues and instead he created characters…

of why the plague occurred in terms of religious and scientific perspectives. An epidemic that caused the most damage to Europe and neighbouring countries was the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Plague and Black Death. According to Giovanni Boccaccio, the Black Plague was highly contagious and highly fatal, killing people in 3 days. C.R. Boxer mentions the transmission of the disease was airborne and was quickly contracted by individuals that were in the vicinity of a contaminated…

The Black Death also known as the Bubonic plague from the Decameron was written by Giovanni Boccaccio during the 14th century CE (Nystrom 80), spread across Europe from central Asia such as Florence. The disease, among other infectious diseases, became a generic world plague that was a very harmful during the Middle Ages. The diseases spread across places such China, Florence, and Persian old empire and also it was well-known disease that was associated with the Mongol empire and suffered a…

dominated by fear and selfishness. One such example can be seen in Boccaccio’s document, where an ill woman raised no objection to being attended to by a male servant act that certainly would have been regarded as more amoral in a more peaceful time (Boccaccio 77). Another more prominent idea comes from Simon Islip, archbishop of Canterbury, who tries to address the clergy that is leaving the public churches to work for more lucrative private chapels. This priest notes the greed that…

Imagine a time where millions of people died because of a plague that could not be explained. That was the case for many during the Middle Ages throughout cities in Europe. Around the time of 1347, a horrible plague took the lives of millions of people infamously known as The Black Death. People still wonder how did it all begin? And who did it affect? Really, there are many questions that one asks about the Black Death including how it all began, who it affected, symptoms, and how it ended.…

From Spoken Words to Written Works Since the dawns of civilizations, people have used literature not only to express their feelings and their imagination but also to narrate what happened on their surroundings. During the medieval period there was a sudden rebirth of literature. Spoken legends orally composed were transformed into written poems and hymns. New writing styles were introduced by those poets and scholars who traveled with the Crusaders – people who went on expeditions for the…

During the Middle Ages, society was corrupt, millions died from disease and Christians were slowly destroying Europe. It was the time period after the fall of Rome (500 AD) that lasted about one thousand years. During the Middle Ages, 30-60% of Europe’s population was wiped out by a sickness commonly referred to as the Black Death. Also, brutal religious wars known as the Crusades were occurring between Muslims and Christians to see who could gain control over the Holy Land, Jerusalem. The…

The fourteenth century in Europe was a time of calamity and disorder for the medieval system. At this time, the cultured High Middle Ages had come to an end and the “crisis of the fourteenth century” was beginning. This ‘crisis’ included the multitude of factors which greatly contributed to the dissolution of the medieval way of life. Originating around Italy, various types of embroilment made their way across Europe, leading to unrest and changes in thinking. The ultimate fall of medieval…