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Rubric 643: Concerning A Mortality In The City Of Florence In Which Many
People Died.

In the year of the Lord 1348 there was a very great pestilence in the city
and district of Florence. It was of such a fury and so tempestuous that in
houses in which it took hold previously healthy servants who took care of
the ill died of the same illness. Almost non of the ill survived past the
fourth day. Neither physicians nor medicines were effective. Whether because
these illnesses were previously unknown or because physicians had not
previously studied them, there seemed to be no cure. There was such a fear
that no one seemed to know what to do. When it took hold in a house it often
happened that no one remained who had not died. And it was not just that men
and women died, but even sentient animals died. Dogs, cats, chickens, oxen,
donkeys sheep showed the same symptoms and died of the same disease. And
almost none, or very few, who showed these symptoms, were cured. The
symptoms were the following: a bubo in the groin, where the thigh meets the
trunk; or a small swelling under the armpit; sudden fever; spitting blood
and saliva (and no one who spit blood survived it). It was such a frightful
thing that when it got into a house, as was said, no one remained.
Frightened people abandoned the house and fled to another. Those in town
fled to villages. Physicians could not be found because they had died like
the others. And those who could be found wanted vast sums in hand before
they entered the house. And when they did enter, they checked the pulse with
face turned away. They inspected the urine from a distance and with
something odoriferous under their nose. Child abandoned the father, husband
the wife, wife the husband, one brother the other, one sister the other. In
all the city there was nothing to do but to carry the dead to a burial. And
those who died had neither confessor nor other sacraments. And many died
with no one looking after them. And many died of hunger because when someone
took to bed sick, another in the house, terrified, said to him: "I'm going
for the doctor." Calmly walking out the door, the other left and did not
return again. Abandoned by people, without food, but accompanied by fever,
they weakened. There were many who pleaded with their relatives not to
abandon them when night fell. But [the relatives] said to the sick person,
"So that during the night you did not have to awaken those who serve you and
who work hard day and night, take some sweetmeats, wine or water. They are
here on the bedstead by your head; here are some blankets." And when the
sick person had fallen asleep, they left and did not return. If it happened
that he was strengthened by the food during the night he might be alive and
strong enough to get to the window. If the street was not a major one, he
might stand there a half hour before anyone came by. And if someone did pass
by, and if he was strong enough that he could be heard when he called out to
them, sometimes there might be a response and sometimes not, but there was
no help. No one, or few, wished to enter a house where anyone was sick, nor
did they even want to deal with those healthy people who came out of a sick
person's house. And they said to them: "He is stupefied, do not speak to
him!" saying further: "He has it because there is a bubo in his house." They
call the swelling a bubo. Many died unseen. So they remained in their beds
until they stank. And the neighbors, if there were any, having smelled the
stench, placed them in a shroud and sent them for burial. The house remained
open and yet there was no one daring enough to touch anything because it
seemed that things remained poisoned and that whoever used them picked up
the illness.

At every church, or at most of them, they dug deep trenches, down to the
waterline, wide and deep, depending on how large the parish was. And those
who were responsible for the dead carried them on their backs in the night
in which they died and threw them into the ditch, or else they paid a high
price to those who would do it for them. The next morning, if there were
many [bodies] in the trench, they covered them over with dirt. And then more
bodies were put on top of them, with a little more dirt over those; they put
layer on layer just like one puts layers of cheese in a lasagna.

The beccamorti [literally vultures] who provided their service, were paid
such a high price that many were enriched by it. Many died from [carrying
away the dead] , some rich, some after earning just a little, but high
prices continued. Servants, or those who took care of the ill, charged from
one to three florins per day and the cost of things grew. The things that
the sick ate, sweetmeats and sugar, seemed priceless. Sugar cost from three
to eight florins per pound. And other confections cost similarly. Capons and
other poultry were very expensive and eggs cost between twelve and
twenty-four pence each; and he was blessed who could find three per day even
if he searched the entire city. Finding wax was miraculous. A pound of wax
would have gone up more than a florin if there had not been a stop put [by
the communal government] to the vain ostentation that the Florentines always
make [over funerals]. Thus it was ordered that no more than two large
candles could be carried[in any funeral]. Churches had no more than a single
bier which usually was not sufficient. Spice dealers and beccamorti sold
biers, burial palls, and cushions at very high prices. Dressing in expensive
woolen cloth as is customary in [mourning] the dead, that is in a long
cloak, with mantle and veil that used to cost women three florins climbed in
price to thirty florins and would have climbed to 100 florins had the custom
of dressing in expensive cloth not been changed. The rich dressed in modest
woolens, those not rich sewed [clothes] in linen. Benches on which the dead
were placed cost like the heavens and still the benches were only a
hundredth of those needed. Priests were not able to ring bells as they would
have liked. Concerning that [the government] issued ordinances discouraging
the sounding of bells, sale of burial benches, and limiting expenses. They
could not sound bells, sell benches, nor cry out announcements because the
sick hated to hear of this and it discouraged the healthy as well. Priests
and friars went [to serve] the rich in great multitudes and they were paid
such high prices that they all got rich. And therefore [the authorities]
ordered that one could not have more than a prescribed number [of clerics]
of the local parish church. And the prescribed number of friars was six. All
fruits with a nut at the center, like unripe plums and unhusked almonds,
fresh broadbeans, figs and every useless and unhealthy fruit, were forbidden
entrance into the city. Many processions, including those with relics and
the painted tablet of Santa Maria Inpruneta, went through the city crying
our "Mercy" and praying and then they came to a stop in the piazza of the
Priors. There they made peace concerning important controversies, injuries
and deaths. This [pestilence] was a matter of such great discouragement and
fear that men gathered together in order to take some comfort in dining
together. And each evening one of them provided dinner to ten companions and
the next evening they planned to eat with one of the others. And sometimes
if they planned to eat with a certain one he had no meal prepared because he
was sick. Or if the host had made dinner for the ten, two or three were
missing. Some fled to villas, others to villages in order to get a change of
air. Where there had been no [pestilence], there they carried it; if it was
already there, they caused it to increase. None of the guilds in Florence
was working. All the shops were shut, taverns closed; only the apothecaries
and the churches remained open. If you went outside, you found almost no
one. And many good and rich men were carried from home to church on a pall
by four beccamorti and one tonsured clerk who carried the cross. Each of
them wanted a florin. This mortality enriched apothecaries, doctors, poultry
vendors, beccamorti, and greengrocers who sold of poultices of mallow,
nettles, mercury and other herbs necessary to draw off the infirmity. And it
was those who made these poultices who made alot of money. Woolworkers and
vendors of remnants of cloth who found themselves in possession of cloths
[after the death of the entrepreneur for whom they were working] sold it to
whoever asked for it. When the mortality ended, those who found themselves
with cloth of any kind or with raw materials for making cloth was enriched.
But many found [who actually owned cloths being processed by workers] found
it to be moth-eaten, ruined or lost by the weavers. Large quantities of raw
and processed wool were lost throughout the city and countryside.

This pestilence began in March, as was said, and ended in September 1348.
And people began to return to look after their houses and possessions. And
there were so many houses full of goods without a master that it was
stupefying. Then those who would inherit these goods began to appear. And
such it was that those who had nothing found themselves rich with what did
not seem to be theirs and they were unseemly because of it. Women and men
began to dress ostentatiously.

Rubric 635
How Many Of The Dead Died Because Of The Mortality Of The Year Of Christ
1348

Now it was ordered by the bishop and the Lords [of the city government]that
they should formally inquire as to how many died in Florence. When it was
seen at the beginning of October that no more persons were dying of the
pestilence, they found that among males, females, children and adults,
96,000 died between March and October.

Rubric 636
How They Passed Ordinances Concerning Many Things In Florence

In the said year, when the mortality stopped, women and men in Florence were
unmindful of [traditional modesty concerning] their dress. And ordinances
were passed concerning this giving authority to the Judge of the Grascia to
enforce these ordinances. The tailors made such boundless demands for
payment that they could not be satisfied. Authority was granted [to the
judge] that he should handle all matters himself. Servants were so unhappy
about the very high prices [they paid] that it was necessary to make great
efforts to restrain [the price rises]. The workers on the land in the
countryside wanted rent contracts such that you could say that all they
harvested would be theirs. And they learned to demand oxen from the landlord
but at the landlord's risk [and liability for any harm done to the animal].
And then they helped others for pay by the job or by the day. And they also
learned to deny [liability for] loans and [rental] payments. Concerning this
serious ordinances were instituted; and [hiring] laborers became much more
expensive. You could say that the farms were theirs; and they wanted the
oxen, seed, loans quickly and on good terms. It was necessary to put a brake
on weddings as well because when they gathered for the betrothal each party
brought too many people in order to increase the pomp. And thus the wedding
was made up of so many trappings. How many days were necessary and how many
women took part in a woman's wedding. And they passed many other ordinances
concerning [these issues].