The document summarizes Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th century work Decameron, which describes the bubonic plague pandemic in Florence, Italy in 1348. It outlines how the plague spread from Asia to Europe, then arrived in Florence, discussing the visible symptoms like swollen lymph nodes. It notes the plague could spread from contact with infected fabrics or animals. This led to widespread fear among the people and breakdown of family ties as people tried to isolate or avoid the sick. Order in the city collapsed as authority was dissolved during the crisis.

1. Decameron
La peste del 1348

2. THE PLAGUE SPREADS IN
EUROPE
“Started a few years before in the East, and after
many victims among the inhabitants, and
propagating from one place to another, it was
widespread in the West spreading pain and dispair.”

4. FROM THE EAST THE
PLAGUE ARRIVES TO
FLORENCE
“It had already past 1348 years from the vantage incarnation
of the Son of God, when the deadly epidemy arrived in the
noble city of Florence, more beautiful than any other city in
Italy.”

6. THE VISIBLE SYMPTOMS
OF PLAGUE
“At the beginning of this disease it formed, equally in men
and women, or in the groin or under the armpits certain
rigonfiature, some of which swelled like a medium-sized
apple, others as an egg, which the common people called
gavaccioli.”

8. THE CONTAGION HITS
HUMANS AND ANIMALS
“Of this infection my eyes were direct witnesses: as the rags
of a poor man who was killed by the plague were thrown on
the road and two pigs came upon them, took them greedily,
first with the snout and then with their teeth, and within
soon afterwards, after some twisting, as if they had taken
poison, they both fell dead.”

10. FEAR AMONG THE PEOPLE
AND DESTROYED FAMILY
TIES
In the survivors were originated many fears and
hallucinations, almost all tended to end a truly inhuman, or
avoid and escape the sick and their things, behaving in this
way, each of them believed to safeguard their health.

12. “ANARCHY IN THE CITY”
In such misery and unworthiness, the respectable authority
of the law-both human and divine ones-was almost entirely
canceled and dissolved.

14. THE DEMOCRATIC VALUES IN THE
DECAMERON
•Equality between genders
•Equality among different cultures
•No diversity between social classes

15. EQUALITY AMONG THE DIFFERENT
PEOPLES
We speek of equality among the
different peoples because Boccaccio
highlights the importance of women, the
group is predominantly composed of
women.

16. EQUALITY AMONG DIFFERENT
CULTURES
We speek of equality among
different cultures because Boccaccio
writes about a different countries,
different languages and different
cultures.

17. NO DIVERSITY BETWEEN SOCIAL
CLASSES
We speek of no diversity between social
classes because Boccaccio in a period of crisis
speaks of the people as if it were all the
same, there is no difference between rich and
poor, they are all afraid of the plague.