After reading excerpts from Boccaccio's The Decameron I was immediately struck by his discussion regarding the breakdown of polite Florentine society. In particular, the people, who I assume were rather wealthy, shut themselves in their home away from the others who were in the streets dying. It was interesting that they decided to live in modesty while drinking the finest of wines but, most importantly, chose not to discuss what was happening outside of those walls. I could understand their unwillingness to discuss the horrors of the plague having lived through one as well, but I thought it was hilarious that they would essentially throw parties for themselves instead of acknowledging their surroundings. It felt a lot like celebrity culture at the beginning of COVID when every talk show host was commended for hosting their shows from their home, despite the necessity for crews and producers to still be present and put in harm's way.
I thought Boccaccio also provided incredibly important and sometimes graphic detail to the nature of the illness and the environmental conditions that may have continued its spread. His description of the teams whose job it was to clear trash and garbage from the city seemed to indicate that the community was aware that trash and dirty city quarters could further spread the disease. Boccaccio's description of the buboes reminded me of Dr. Green's discussion about our relative inability to accurately diagnose which diseases made up specific plagues. I thought the most interesting aspect of the podcast was the relatively new research into plagues and how we never thought we'd be able to accurately know because they killed so quickly they didn't leave an effect on the bones we have. It made me thankful that we live in a time where we know exactly what we're fighting and how long it might take to fight it.