Giovanni Boccaccio

escape the plague. Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian poet and Renaissance humanist who wrote The Decameron, which was written at the time of the plague, claims that the disease did not only affect people who were in physical contact with the sick, but even those who touched their clothes or other objects used by the victims became infected, too (Boccaccio 6). He explains that “in most cases death occurred within three days” after symptoms of swellings, blotches, bruises and others (Boccaccio 6).…

The authors of the book Worlds Together, Worlds Apart (2015) is Elizabeth Pollard, Clifford Rosenberg, and Robert Tignor, professors of illustrious Universities, whose work collaborates with important international committees within the East Coast of the United States. The public source is organized around major world history stories and themes, which go into great-detail concerning the fundamental movements and collective enlightenment that have changed various parts of the world, by linking…

Renaissance Europe spanned between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and spread out of Italy. Renaissance means the “rebirth”, so the “rebirth” of Europe. This time in Europe was a time of social and cultural change, and was singularized by innovation and creativity. Examples of this include art, literature and philosophy. The art was centralized around being more life-like and showing perspective. Artists like Michelangelo were able to show better human anatomy in paintings and statues…

Love is a difficult tale to tell. It is the one thing on this planet that could either make or break a person. The story “Federigo’s Falcon” tells of a young man, Federigo, who falls into poverty while trying to win the heart of a girl named Monna. Monna and her son move away to their country estate near the farm in which Federigo lives because of her husband’s passing. Monna’s son becomes friends with Federigo and his prized falcon. Later on, the son becomes sick and requests that his…

Humanism became almost entirely extinct, though it doesn't completely die out. the existence of the catholic humanist was far and few in between. one such christian was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Giovanni played a vital role in the introduction of Humanism into the christian church with his book Oration on the Dignity of Man. the book's main arguing point is that “transcendence into the divine is the highest form of the humanist experience…

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…

when individuals decided to stray from old spiritual tradition and focus on their own personal interests. Art in general in the Renaissance seemed to especially root from the new humanistic beliefs that were carried by important civilians like Giovanni Boccaccio and Thomas More. Generally, the humanistic belief gave individuals the freedom of living a life that didn’t involve ritualistic, superstitious, or spiritual beliefs. Saying this, it was a big change in the Renaissance era that helped…

to him. His comedy is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. Dante’s Divine Comedy has flourished for more than 650 years and has been considered a major work since Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a biography of Dante in…

Samantha Clark Timothy Hudenburg His 101/023N December 8, 2017 Morality v.s. Mortality: Exploring the Black Plague and Attempts to Prevent its Spread. The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) caused by the Yersinia pestis, a bacterium found in the blood of rats was transferred to fleas which would then pass it on to humans, was one of the largest epidemics in human history. Some historians say it claimed approximately one quarter of the population in Europe and West Asia by the end of the fourteenth…

My favorite text from this semester was the story called “The Pardoner’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer. This is my first favorite text from the semester because of how much Chaucer uses the character of the Pardoner to attack the Roman Catholic church. He makes the character of the Pardoner and Summoner very greedy; just as the church was in the 1300’s of Chaucer’s time. As history will already tell, the Roman Catholic church was greedy during the Middle Ages or Dark Ages. So this fits well into the…