"Disease in fiction Diseases, both real and fictional, play a significant role in fiction, with certain diseases like Huntington's disease and tuberculosis appearing in many books and films. Pandemic plagues threatening all human life, such as ""The Andromeda Strain"", are among the many fictional diseases described in literature and film. Genuine plagues have formed the central elements of books from Giovanni Boccaccio's c. 1353 ""The Decameron"" onwards. Bocaccio tells the tales of ten people of Florence who escape from the Black Death in their city. The book inspired Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century ""Canterbury Tales"", which similarly tells the stories of"
"women and three men—fleeing the Black Death by escaping from Florence to the Fiesole hills, in 1348. The modern distinction between history and fiction did not exist in the early sixteenth century and the grossest improbabilities pervade many historical accounts found in the early modern print market. William Caxton's 1485 edition of Thomas Malory's ""Le Morte d'Arthur"" (1471) was sold as a true history, though the story unfolded in a series of magical incidents and historical improbabilities. Sir John Mandeville's ""Voyages"", written in the 14th century, but circulated in printed editions throughout the 18th century, was filled with natural wonders,"
"the Italian work, ""Decamerone"", a collection of a hundred novels, related by a party of men and women who retired to a villa near Florence to escape the plague in 1348. Novel-writing, so abundant in the preceding centuries, especially in France, now for the first time assumed an artistic shape. The style of Boccaccio tends to the imitation of Latin, but in him prose first took the form of elaborated art. The rudeness of the old ""fabliaux"" gives place to the careful and conscientious work of a mind that has a feeling for what is beautiful, that has studied the"
"years 1368 to 1372, but for 1373-74 detail is again scarce. From 1375 until Bonaiuti's death there is again much detail of the current news events of Florence. A passage in Bonaiuti's ""Cronaca fiorentina"" talks of the mortality rate and the small virtues of people living under such extreme conditions of the plague disease suffered by Florence in 1348. The plague not only killed people, but it killed also their domestic animals, including dogs and cats, and their livestock, such as oxen, donkeys, sheep and chickens. The disease arrived in Florence in March 1348 and did not stop killing until"
"""Decameron"", a collection of 100 stories told by ten storytellers who have fled to the outskirts of Florence to escape the black plague over ten nights. The ""Decameron"" in particular and Boccaccio's work in general were a major source of inspiration and plots for many English authors in the Renaissance, including Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare. Aside from Christianity, classical antiquity, and scholarship, a fourth influence on Renaissance literature was politics. The political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli's most famous works are ""Discourses on Livy"", ""Florentine Histories"" and finally ""The Prince"", which has become so well known in Western society that the"
"about twenty-five years after Bonaiuti's death. Rodolico's edition was published in 1903. On the first page of his Chronicle Bonaiuti declares, of his chosen language and his research: The Chronicle gives some of the history of the Bonaiuti family, placing the writer's ancestors at the beginning of the thirteenth century among the noble Guelphs. His Chronicle, however, is mainly about the history of Florence from ancient times (its legendary foundation by Caesar in 70 BCE) up to 1385. Bonaiuti devotes a major part of the work to the destruction caused to Florence and Fiesole by the bubonic plague of the"
"of Florence during the 1350s bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, when some people fled the ravaged city to an isolated country mansion, and spent their time there recounting stories and novellas taken from the medieval and contemporary tradition. All of this is written in a series of 100 distinct novellas. In the 16th century, during the Renaissance, Florence was the home town of political writer and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, whose ideas on how rulers should govern the land, detailed in ""The Prince"", spread across European courts and enjoyed enduring popularity for centuries. These principles became known as ""Machiavellianism""."
"which covers the years 1501 to 1546. Among other events, it furnishes details on the successful siege of Florence by imperial troops which returned the exiled Medici to power, and is written in the local dialect of the Mugello region. He wrote at least three other works: the ""Vita della Beata Chiara Ubaldini"", (""Life of the Blessed Chiara Ubaldini""), the biography of a local abbess, ""Relazione dell'origine e del progresso del Convento del Bosco"" (""Account of the Origins and Development of the Convent of Bosco"") and ""Relazione sui danni al Convento del Bosco ai Frati causati dal terremoto del 13"
"because of Edward III of England's refusal to pay his debts, as is often stated (the debt was just £13,000) but because of a Europe-wide economic recession. While the banks perished, Florentine literature flourished, and Florence was home to some of the greatest writers in Italian history: Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. They were Europe's first vernacular writers, choosing the Tuscan dialect of Italian (which, as a result, evolved into the standard Italian language) over Latin. Florence was hit hard by the Black Death. Having originated in the Orient, the plague arrived in Messina in 1347. The plague devastated Europe, robbing"
"including in book IV an account of the 25-year voyage of the Venetian adventurer Niccolo de' Conti in Persia and India, which was translated into Portuguese on express command of the Portuguese King Emmanuel I. An Italian translation was made from the Portuguese. Poggio's ""Historia Florentina"" (""History of Florence""), is a history of the city from 1350 to 1455, written in avowed imitation of Livy and Sallust, and possibly Thucydides (available in Greek, but translated into Latin by Valla only in 1450–52) in its use of speeches to explain decisions. Poggio continued Leonardo Bruni's ""History of the Florentine People"", which"
"their escape. In the course of these events many of her writings were lost. They finally succeeded in reaching Heidelberg in 1554 where a medical lectureship had been obtained for Grundler through the influence of the Erbach family, by whom they had been hospitably entertained during their flight. In 1558, after her death, a major collection of some of her Greek letters and Latin dialogues was published in Basel, a labour which she entrusted to her friend and correspondent Caelius Secundus Curio. Olympia Fulvia Morata Olimpia Fulvia Morata (1526 – 26 October 1555) was an Italian classical scholar. She was"
"as ambassador to the German King, Wenceslaus, on what was considered an important diplomatic mission. In 1382 he represented the government of Florence that put an end to the Revolt of the Ciompi. Bonaiuti's ""Cronaca fiorentina"" (""""Florentine Chronicle"""") is his only known literary work and includes his first-hand account of the Black Death in and around Florence in the mid-14th century, as well as a history of the city from its earliest times. Bonaiuti did this work as a labor of love during his retirement, in the late 1370s and early 1380s, which proved to be his final years. Baldassarre"
"motets of the 16th century; the utterly contrasting, virtuoso motet ""Virgo salutiferi""; and possibly the ""Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae"", which is written on a ""cantus firmus"" derived from the musical letters in the Duke's name, a technique known as ""soggetto cavato"". Josquin did not stay in Ferrara long. An outbreak of the plague in the summer of 1503 prompted the evacuation of the Duke and his family, as well as two-thirds of the citizens, and Josquin left by April of the next year, possibly also to escape the plague. His replacement, Jacob Obrecht, died of the plague in the summer"
"Summary of Decameron tales This article contains summaries and commentaries of the 100 stories within Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron. Each story of the ""Decameron"" begins with a short heading explaining the plot of the story. The 1903 J. M. Rigg English translation headings are used in many of these summaries. Commentary on the tale itself follows. Before beginning the story-telling sessions, the ten young Florentines, seven women and three men, referred to as the ""Brigata"", gather at the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella and together decide to escape the Black Death by leaving the city to stay in a villa"
"of Boccaccio, about a party of people who were supposed to fly from a plague and to go travelling about in different Italian cities, stopping here and there telling stories. Later, but important, names are those of Masuccio Salernitano (Tommaso Guardato), who wrote the ""Novellino"", and Antonio Cornazzano whose ""Proverbii"" became extremely popular. Chronicles formerly believed to have been of the 13th century are now mainly regarded as forgeries. At the end of the 13th century there is a chronicle by Dino Compagni, probably authentic. Giovanni Villani, born in 1300, was more of a chronicler than an historian. He relates"
"Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro. In Naples, Boccaccio began what he considered his true vocation of poetry. Works produced in this period include ""Il Filostrato"" and ""Teseida"" (the sources for Chaucer's ""Troilus and Criseyde"" and ""The Knight's Tale"", respectively), ""The Filocolo"" (a prose version of an existing French romance), and ""La caccia di Diana"" (a poem in ""terza rima"" listing Neapolitan women). The period featured considerable formal innovation, including possibly the introduction of the Sicilian octave, where it influenced Petrarch. Boccaccio returned to Florence in early 1341, avoiding the plague of 1340 in that city, but also missing the visit"
"Florentine Histories Florentine Histories () is a historical account by Italian Renaissance political philosopher and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, first published posthumously in 1532. After the crisis of 1513, with arrests for conspiracy, torture and after being sentenced to house arrest, Machiavelli's relationship with the Medici family passively began to mend itself. If the dedication of ""Il Principe"" (1513) to Lorenzo II de' Medici had not any effect, part of the then dominant faction of the Florence was not against him, and instead granted him an appointment. In his letter he deplores his idle state, offering his precious political experience to"
"for Italy. The ship followed an adventurous course, taking him by the Anatolian coast of the Ottoman Empire, to call in the port of Tripoli, and near Poreč on the Adriatic, where he was captured by brigands but managed to escape. He arrived safely in Venice late in 1349 and went to Ferrara, where he was detained until the spring of 1350, when he finally, after five years of wandering, returned to Poggibonsi. Upon his return, Niccolò recounted his travels in the ""Libro d'oltramare"" (""Book of Outremer""). Rich in detail, it describes the sights, the distances on the roads, the"
"The Travels of Marco Polo Book of the Marvels of the World (French: ""Livre des Merveilles du Monde"") or ""Description of the World"" (""Devisement du Monde""), in Italian ""Il Milione"" (, deriving from Polo's nickname ""Emilione"") or ""Oriente Poliano"" (""Polian East"") and in English commonly called ""The Travels of Marco Polo"", is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Italian explorer Marco Polo, describing Polo's travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan. The book was written in Old French by romance writer Rustichello da Pisa,"
"in the Hofbibliothek in Vienna. Its title is: ""Chronica"", or ""Annales rerum ab imperatoribus Adolpho, Alberto, Friderico, Ludovico Bavarico et Carolo IV. gestarum"", or again ""Annales imperatorum et paparum"". It is a chronological treatise extending from 1294 to 1362, and consists of two parts. The first part is a sequel to what is called the ""Flores Temporum"", a well-known chronicle of the world's history compiled by a Swabian Franciscan, and reaches to the year 1343; it was probably compiled by an unknown writer about 1346 or 1347. The second part is a history of the twenty years from 1343 to"
"Florence on honorable terms. For Dante, exile was nearly a form of death, stripping him of much of his identity and his heritage. He addressed the pain of exile in ""Paradiso"", XVII (55–60), where Cacciaguida, his great-great-grandfather, warns him what to expect: As for the hope of returning to Florence, he describes it as if he had already accepted its impossibility (in ""Paradiso"", XXV, 1–9): Alighieri accepted Prince Guido Novello da Polenta's invitation to Ravenna in 1318. He finished ""Paradiso"" and died in 1321 (aged 56) while returning to Ravenna from a diplomatic mission to Venice, possibly of malaria contracted"
"such as the gate fee (common in times of war) were not levied. Historian Felicity Ratté states that the validity of this comment should be heavily scrutinized considering the Florence statutes of 1290 that designated employment for individuals in charge of locking the city gates. Villani also contradicts himself by writing of a night attack on Florence in 1323 which clearly demonstrates the fact that the gates were locked at night. In 1300 or shortly after, Villani began working on the ""Cronica"", which was divided into twelve books; the first six deal with the largely legendary history of Florence, starting"
"L. A. Muratori in the ""Rerum Italicarum scriptores, tome vii"" (Milan, 1725). The author, delighting as he does in fables, has gathered much material for the history of folklore. A work considered particularly valuable is the ""Gesta Friderici I"" (""(res) gesta"" is Latin for 'deeds', a common title for biographical works), verses relating events in the emperor's career from 1155 to 1180. Concerned mainly with affairs in Italy, the poem tells of the sieges of Milan, of Frederick's flight to Pavia in 1167, of the treaty with Pope Alexander III at Venice, and of other stirring episodes with which the"
"were made desolate. And this plague lasted till ________""; Villani left the ""_______"" in order to record the time in which the plague was to end. Villani was unable to finish the line as he succumbed to the same plague. He was buried in the Church of Santissima Annunziata, Florence. Villani's ""Cronica"" was considered an important work at the time, valuable enough for his brother and nephew to continue it. Little is known of Villani's brother, Matteo, save that he was twice married, that he died of the plague in 1363, and that he continued work on the ""Cronica"" until"
"was fixed in consideration that poor workers who made only eight to twelve pennies a day could now buy enough bread to survive. Villani also describes in vivid detail the effects of another widespread famine in Tuscany during the year 1347, which killed an estimated 4,000 people in Florence a year before the Bubonic Plague. On June 23, 1331, a fire broke out toward the left bank of the Ponte Vecchio bridge, destroying all twenty shops located on the bridge. Villani notes that this was a heavy loss to local craftsmen of Florence, while two craftsman apprentices died in the"
"after he succumbed to the Black Death in 1348. Villani is praised by historians for preserving valuable information on statistics, biographies, and even events taking place throughout Europe, but his work has also drawn criticism by historians for its many inaccuracies, use of the supernatural and divine providence to explain the outcome of events and glorification of Florence and the papacy. In 1338, there were about 17,000 beggars in the city. 4,000 were on public relief. There were 6 primary schools with 10,000 pupils, including girls. Four high schools taught 600 students, including a few girls. They studied literature and"
"the first appearance in Italian literature of this legend, while ""Villani's report includes details which establish an independent Italian branch of the tradition"" according to Lavin. St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, repeated the story of Villani in his Latin ""Chronicles"", while Villani's illustrated ""Cronica"" featured a scene of this French Jew that later appeared in a painting by Paolo Uccello. Villani wrote during the bubonic plague: ""The priest who confessed the sick and those who nursed them so generally caught the infection that the victims were abandoned and deprived confession, sacrament, medicine, and nursing ... And many lands and cities"
"In later centuries several translations of Guido's work appeared, in Catalan, Dutch, English, French, Polish, Czech, German and Italian: Historia destructionis Troiae Historia destructionis Troiae (""History of the destruction of Troy"") or Historia Troiana is a Latin prose narrative written by Guido delle Colonne, a Sicilian author, in the early 13th century. Its main source was the Old French verse romance by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, ""Roman de Troie"". The author claims that the bulk of the work was written in 71 days, from September 15 to November 25 of an unspecified year, with the full text being completed some time"
"which only the first six books exist – January through June. The five books of the elegiac ""Tristia"", a series of poems expressing the poet's despair in exile and advocating his return to Rome, are dated to AD 9–12. The ""Ibis"", an elegiac curse poem attacking an adversary at home, may also be dated to this period. The ""Epistulae ex Ponto"", a series of letters to friends in Rome asking them to effect his return, are thought to be his last compositions, with the first three books published in AD 13 and the fourth book between AD 14 and 16."
"sacked during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and brought to St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. In the 1960s, the heel part of the missing foot was discovered by archaeologists in Istanbul close to the Bodrum Mosque. This part is in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. A different story is told by ""The Travels of Marco Polo"", the famous Venetian's autobiography put to paper with the help of his co-writer, Rustichello of Pisa, around 1300. This story has to be treated with great caution, the source being far from reliable in modern terms:Messenger, Charles, ed. (1929). ""The Travels of Marco Polo. The"
"in French as well as in Spanish, Italian, and even Greek.0 Rustichello may have been captured by the Genoese at the Battle of Meloria in 1284, amid a conflict between the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Pisa. When Polo was imprisoned around 1298, possibly after a clash between Genoa and Venice (according to tradition the Battle of Curzola), he told his tales of travel to Rustichello. Together they created the book known as ""The Travels of Marco Polo"". Rustichello da Pisa Rustichello da Pisa, also known as Rusticiano (fl. late 13th century), was an Italian romance writer. He"
"returned to Florence, where he took minor orders, making it possible for him to become a canon in Verona. At home, he took charge of his family's financial affairs; in 1343, he was able to retake possession of his father's confiscated property. He died in 1348. Jacopo Alighieri Jacopo Alighieri (1289–1348) was an Italian poet, the son of Dante Alighieri, whom he followed in his exile. Jacopo's most famous work is his sixty-chapter ""Dottrinale"". Born in 1289 in Florence, Jacopo was the son of Dante Alighieri and his wife, Gemma di Manetto Donati. He was exiled from Florence with his"
"provide a defence of the larger city against attacks from the north. Prato was taken over by Florence during a war with Milan, just before an invasion of Tuscany by Oleggio Visconti in 1351, when the newly garrisoned Prato was by-passed and Florence itself besieged, before the siege was abandoned on the Feast of the Assumption. This was a huge relief, as most Florentine troops were garrisoning Pistoia and Prato. It has been suggested that this nervous time, and the date of the lifting of the siege, stimulated the significant number of Florentine commissions of art involving the story of"