Analysis - Giovanni Boccaccio, "The Onset of the Black Death"
Boccaccio's Decameron is a masterpiece of early 14th century European literature; its bawdiness and its sheer wit are a wonderful, funny indicator of what life was like in 14th century Italy. However, the central framing device of the book itself - the Black Plague, which ravaged Europe around the time of the book's setting and publication - plays a somber but vital role in this important work. The importance of the plague to the story is no less evident than in the introduction, which demonstrates the awesome power of the sickness. Boccaccio's account of the plague during the time it hit Florence is often compared to real accounts and additional sources of information about the Black Plague, but it is often left wanting due to Boccaccio's penchant for embellishment and dramatic flair. Furthermore, Boccaccio's emphasis in the introduction of the Black Plague was often on the unstoppability and sheer terror of the disease, including how swiftly it spread throughout the country and people's helplessness in treating it. Boccaccio's writing style is very dramatic and humorous, with a particular emphasis on philosophy as it pertains to luck. The following analysis will weigh the introduction of the Decameron according to these criteria.
Boccaccio starts the Decameron with an introduction that immediately demonstrates his artistic and dramatic flair - "Every time I stop to consider your natural inclination to pity, most gracious ladies, I recognize that you will find the opening of this present work abhorrent and distressing"1. His first paragraph is addressed to an unidentified group of women, some of the people to tell these stories that would follow. This is already evidence of Boccaccio's tongue-in-cheek nature, as he undersells the horror that the rest of the introduction will provide, giving details of the Black Plague and the subsequent crisis in Italy. Noting that the following will be disturbing, he treats the "ladies" somewhat derisively and assumes their fragile constitution. While this works for humor's sake, it does also strengthen the intensity and sheer horror that will proceed slightly in his description of the Black Plague.
This opening sentence is meant to be a warning for all who read the work that they will not be pleased; however, this is purposeful, as Boccaccio immediately counters with the reason for the disturbing content to come. "You are to look upon this grim opening as travelers on foot confront a steep, rugged mountain: beyond it lies a most enchanting plain which they appreciate all the more for having toiled up and down the mountain first"2. The simplicity of this sentence belies the fact that the characters have been on a long journey, prefacing the detailed account of the black plague that demonstrates a fairly accurate and arresting account of how the Black Death affected Italian society in the 14th century.
In his account of the Black Plague, Boccaccio encounters many different things that catch his eye. First among these is the process of the plague itself. In his introduction to the Decameron, Boccaccio details the gruesome process by which people fell ill. All of the symptoms are recreated in horrendous detail, and this seems to catch Boccaccio's eye. By allowing us to endure the step by step process of the plague right from the beginning, he allows us to understand the bleakness of the situation that arose as a result of this sickness. Understanding the stakes, and what exactly happened to each person who contracted the illness, from the dark patches of buboes to the swelling, gave a more visceral feel to the plague. Furthermore, the mentioning of the fact that the doctors had absolutely no idea what to do about this sickness adds to the desperation that was felt at the time. "No physician's prescriptions, no medicine seemed of the slightest benefit as a cure for this disease"3. Even the swiftness of the disease itself came without symptoms sometimes, furthering the terror found in the reader. "Some died sooner, some later, and the majority with no fever, nothing"4.
As for Boccaccio's account of the plague, it is certainly arresting and thought-provoking - but is it accurate? Despite the dramatized version of it, many details of the plague are seen to be truth if researched against other sources. Boccaccio himself was quite the glossator and scholar in his own right; using textual criticism and commentary on many works to provide his own sense of research and knowledge on tomes like Dante's Vita nova5. With these facts in mind, one can reasonably assume that the plague itself "was proof against all human providence and remedies"6.
Boccaccio's account is not without its flaws, however. Boccaccio speaks of dark patches of skin as an indicator of the disease; however, the Black Death itself was not so named for any sort of skin discoloration, and there were no such symptoms7. Boccaccio likely created that particular symptom out of urban folk tales, and the reasoning that it was called the "Black Death" because of these imaginary lesions. However, despite this piece of dramatic license, "Black is meant in the metaphorical sense of terrible. In fact, the term 'Black Death' was not used until the middle of the sixteenth century. Contemporaries called it the 'pestilence'"8. With that in mind, one can reasonably assume that Boccaccio chalked that up to narrative embellishment and hyperbole.
The method of transmission of the Black Death is not wholly touched upon; it is almost nearly assumed to occur entirely through "normal intercourse" and proximity to corpses. This method of spreading the disease is most certainly accurate in populations that were already exposed, but belies the presence of rats and other rodents, who initially spread the disease9. Most if not all of Boccaccio's text is focused entirely on the dead and the avoidance thereof. This led to a dramatic downturn in civility that was a consequence of such hard times: "Things had reached the point where the dying received no more consideration than the odd goat would today"10." These details allow Boccacio to show the accurate and horrifying consequences of the plague at the time.
Boccaccio takes a sort of sick glee in noting just how society collapses as a result of the medical devastation of the plague. "Not only did the healthy incur the disease and with it the prevailing mortality by talking to or keeping company with the sick - they had only to touch the clothing or anything else that had come into contact with or been used by the sick and the plague evidently was passed to the one who handled those things"11. This led to a dramatic increase in paranoia among neighbors and friends, which Boccaccio details in sickeningly curious and detached detail; "This sort of thingproduced in the survivors all manner of terrors and suspicions all tending to the same solutionthey would keep their distance from the plague victimsthus hoping to preserve their own skins"12.
More and more, Boccaccio outlines situations in which people would hide in homes and form their own microcosms, pretending the plague did not exist. While these people waited, however, they would take advantage of dead people's hospitality, furnishings, and the like, all indicative of the accurate rise in the standard of living that occurred during the Black Plague13. Society quickly fell to ruin in much the same way that Boccaccio describes, people turning on each other and doing whatever they could to avoid the plague. "Most medieval physicians agreed that the surest way to avoid getting the plaguewas flight"14, something that Boccaccio's characters to in order to set off the frame story of the Decameron. In these respects, Boccaccio's writing strengthens the representation of history by accurately noting how society reacted to it.
Boccaccio is no stranger to hyperbole or controversy; there is quite the hint of bawdiness and sexual lasciviousness in many of his works, including the Decameron15. A decidedly uncourtly writer, he often wrote of lustful sexual relations in lieu of honorable romances in the Middle Ages; this led to a certain strength and wit in writing that he brought to his tale of the Black Plague, and is particularly evident in its introduction. Both the medical and societal effects of the plague are written with dark humor, the writer noting with mock respect the ways in which people attempted to avoid the plague, as if there was any chance of foregoing it. The myriad methods of people going about their daily lives were fodder for comedy or wit to Boccaccio; "When a woman fell ill, she could be the neatest, prettiest, most refined of ladies, but she made no bones about being attended by a male, any male, never mind his age, and displaying to him any part of her anatomy quite without embarrassment, just as she would do with another of her sex, if her invalid condition required it"16. This bawdiness and black humor shows the satirical aspect of his account of the plague, Boccaccio meaning to show the plague as the destruction of society, and its social mores along with it.
Boccaccio's chief priority, where the plague is concerned, is with the societal effects, in particular the changes to society in the death of the rich. Many incredible resources, including food and housing, were left open for grabs once those who contracted the plague died off. The Black Death was not kind to any one group, particularly the rich; with this in mind, the author laments the many people with resources and potential that were ripped away by the plague. "Oh think of all the great palaces, the fine houses and gorgeous mansions that once boasted full households, now bereft of their masters and mistresses, abandoned by all, down to the humblest menial!"17.
In conclusion, Boccaccio uses dramatic flair and humor to provide a somewhat more strengthened representation of 14th century Florence in his introduction to the Decameron. By emphasizing the helplessness and inevitability of death that the Black Plague brings to Italy during the time of the book, Boccaccio sets the stage for a horrific backdrop to his humorous anthology of stories. That preface to the stories to come offers a background on what is going on in Italy at the time, providing context for the group of storytellers to hide out away from society, and the dire circumstances that might lead them to share such lively, bawdy stories with each other.
Boccaccio's account of the plague is provided with some embellishment, but for the most part remains true to the scientific history of the plague, in terms of symptoms and prognosis. Boccaccio's eye for detail shows just how the black plague affected the human condition, and how the people at the time had to think about this particular situation. Finally, Boccaccio offers the means by which the reader can appreciate the situation that the characters are in by blending the dramatic with the horrifyingly true. The first readers of Boccaccio's stories would have still remembered the plague, as it had been published not long after; reminding the audience of this lends his story a greater narrative weight to them, as it does to us.
Works Cited
Ole J. Benedictow. The Black Death 1346-1353: The Complete History. Boydell Press,
Woodbridge, UK, 2004.
Giovanni Boccaccio. The Decameron. Oxford University Press, 1993.
K.P. Clarke. "Boccaccio as Glossator." in Chaucer and Italian Textuality. Oxford University
Press, 2011.
Andrew Noymer. "Contesting the Cause and Severity of the Black Death: A Review Essay."
PDR 33(3): 616.
Louise Chipley Slavicek. Great Historic Disasters: The Black Death. Infobase Publishing, 2008.
Caitlin E. Williams. "The Voice of Dioneo: Women in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron."
Honors Scholar Theses. University of Connecticut, 2007.
