THE BLACK DEATH

 The Black Death occurred in October 1347. It arrived by sea and killed more than 20 million people in Europe; almost one-third of the continent's population. 12 Genoese trading ships arrived at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. Most of the sailors aboard these ships were dead, and remainder were very ill. They were suffering from fever and were exhausted. The Sicilian authorities immediately ordered these ships out of the harbor, but it wasn't adequate to prevent deaths. The plague was terrifyingly efficient. When they caught the disease,healthy people could be dead in a few days. Today, scientists understand that the Black Death, is spread by a bacillus called Yersinia pestis. They know that the bacillus travels from person to person through the air or through the bite of infected fleas and rats. People who remained alive and didn't catch the plague did so many things not to get sick: doctors refused to see patients, shopkeepers closed stores, many people moved away from the cities, nevertheless none of these things could prevent catching the disease because the disease effected people and animals. The Black Death epidemic had run its course by the early 1350s.

The plague had large scale social and economic effects, many of them are mentioned in the introduction of the Decameron. People were isolated from the world and could not communicate with their family and friends. Funeral rites became cursory. Some believed that the wrath of God was descending upon man, and fought the plague with prayer. Some believed that they should obey the idiom, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die."  Many of the religious dignitaries died and the remainder couldn’t prevent the plague; therefore, people's religious belief declined.

The plague also effected the economy and the  community experienced economic collapse, which caused extreme inflation. It was so difficult to produce goods and trade them; consequently, the prices of goods rose significantly. Workers became more important because of illness and death, accordingly their wages rose. Workers became scarce so the lords wanted to  keep them on their land, they made some changes in workers’ standard of living.

Upper class people spent money on clothing in order to emphasize their social standings. The Aristocracy attempted to resist the changes in the social community so peasants revolted. Besides the plague’s deadly effects, the social and economic structure was changed drastically.