The ''Cronaca fiorentina di Marchionne di Coppo Stefani'' () written by
Baldassarre Bonaiuti
Baldassarre Bonaiuti, also known as Marchionne di Coppo Stefani (1336, in Florence – 1385, in Florence), was a chronicler (historian), statesman, politician, businessman and diplomat from Florence, Italy.Black Death in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
in the year 1348. It is the only known literary work by Bonaiuti.Ernesto Sestan, 'Bonaiuti Baldassarre, detto Marchionne' in ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', vol. XV (Rome, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1972), pp. 105-112 online version online at treccani.it, accessed 31 July 2011 (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
) It was written in
vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
. There is no information as to when he may have started his work, but he devoted much time on it in his retirement from about 1378 until his death, a period of seven years.
The ''Cronaca fiorentina'' is not only a detailed history of the Black Death in Florence, but also a history of Florentine political groups and the political ambitions of individuals.Marchionne di Coppo Stefani ' in ''Storia di Firenze'' at dssg.unifi.it, accessed 31 July 2011 Bonaiuti stresses the economic disruption in Florence during the fourteenth century which was the result of the bubonic plague. The Chronicle is a didactic work as well as a detailed historical record of Florence up to 1386.
Editions
The first edition of the chronicle was by Ildefonso di San Luigi (1724–1792), who had available to him four
codices
The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
of the work.
Niccolò Rodolico Niccolò Rodolico (14 March 1873 – 1969) was an Italian historian, a professor in the University of Messina and the University of Florence.
Born at Trapani, a fishing port in Sicily, after attending the ''Liceo Ximenes'' in his home town, where h ...
, in preparing a new edition, was able to refer to a further seven codices, the earliest of which dated from about twenty-five years after Bonaiuti's death. Rodolico's edition was published in 1903.
Contents
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
The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, rival ...
. 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
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
and
Fiesole
Fiesole () is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a scenic height above Florence, 5 km (3 miles) northeast of that city. It has structures dating to Etruscan and Roman times.
Sin ...
by the bubonic plague of the Black Death in the fourteenth century. For the first part of Bonaiuti's work up to 1348 he relied upon
Giovanni Villani
Giovanni Villani (; 1276 or 1280 – 1348)Bartlett (1992), 35. was an Italian banker, official, diplomat and chronicler from Florence who wrote the ''Nuova Cronica'' (''New Chronicles'') on the history of Florence. He was a leading statesman of ...
's '' Nuova Cronica'', but after that he diverges from the work of Villani. His own work focusses principally on Florence, while that of Villani extended over other parts of Europe, with no particular devotion to any geographical area.
Bonaiuti devotes in his Chronicle as much effort to the current "news" of the time, especially concerning the Black Death, as to the ancient history of earlier centuries. His account of Florentine events to 1367 contains little detail. This increases for 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 September of that year.Concerning A Mortality in the City of Florence in Which Many People Died /ref>
The ''Cronaca fiorentina'' explains that physicians of the day had no idea how to fight this deadly plague, as the medicine of the day knew of no defense against it. It caused such terror that even family members abandoned each other. If someone fell sick, his relations would tell him to go to bed, while they could fetch the doctor. But on leaving home they would fail to return. Once a patient was in bed he usually received no further care, not even food or water. "I'm going for the doctor." Calmly walking out the door, the other left and did not return again.
The work also describes the symptoms of the disease, which were a
bubo
A bubo (Greek βουβών, ''boubṓn'', 'groin') is adenitis or inflammation of the lymph nodes and is an example of reactive lymphadenopathy.
Classification
Buboes are a symptom of bubonic plague and occur as painful swellings in the thigh ...
in the groin area or the armpit. This was usually followed by a fever, with the sufferer spitting up saliva or blood. Those spitting up blood never survived, and most with these symptoms would die within a few days. There was such fear of getting the plague just by being near to sick people that their relations abandoned them. Many people died simply by being left alone with no help whatsoever: no medical assistance, nursing, or even food, if they had indicated they were ill. There was nothing to do but to go to bed and die. No one would enter a house that had a plague sufferer in it. People would not even deal with a healthy person if they suspected they came from a house of sickness. No one would enter an abandoned house if those in it had died of the plague. Everything in the house seemed poisoned. Nobody dared touch anything for fear they would contact the plague.
A passage from Bonaiuti's chronicle tells how most churches were overwhelmed with burials, so dug mass deep graves. Those responsible for disposing of the bodies carried them to the mass grave, dropped them in, and added earth. More bodies arrived the next day, upon which more earth was placed, and soon the mass graves were filled with layers of bodies. People willing to carry bodies to the graves were highly paid and were called ''beccamorti'', or vultures. Some made a fortune at the work, if they did not die of the plague themselves.
Bonaiuti recounts how in the months of the Black Death, goods became very expensive.
Food prices
Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices have an impact on producers and consumers of food.
Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing ...
increased astronomically. Services of all kinds also became very expensive. Wax was very scarce, so that few could afford a pound weight of it. The government of the city finally had to order a limit on the price of wax, so that people could afford candles for light and for the few funerals that took place, but only two candles could be carried in any funeral. The cost of funeral clothing climbed ten-fold. Finally, the custom of dressing in expensive clothing for a funeral was discontinued.
The ''Cronaca fiorentina'' explains that the spice-dealers and ''beccamorti'' sold burial items, such as perfumed spiced goods, benches, caskets, burial palls,
bier
A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, ...
s, and cushions, at outrageously high prices, so that the government finally had to step in and control such prices. It also forbade the custom of ringing bells during a funeral, to limit the knowledge of how many funerals there actually were. Crying out a funeral announcement was also forbidden. Knowing how many funerals there were discouraged the sick as well as the healthy. Priests and
friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...
s served the rich, since they were paid large amounts of money for their services, and could become rich themselves. The local authorities then made laws prescribing how many clerics a church could have, usually setting the limit at six. Many rich people died, and many religious processions with relics went through the streets of Florence. The dead would be carried away by four ''beccamorti'' and a tonsured clerk carrying a Christian cross, each wanting to be highly paid.
Bonaiuti makes it clear that the plague killed so many people that certain new customs were put into place. Fruits with a nut center, unhusked almonds, figs, and "unhealthy" fruits were forbidden to enter Florence, for fear of bringing in the pestilence. Men would gather and dine together. Each evening a man would provide the cooked meal for ten other men, rotating from night to night as the host. Many times a host would provide dinner for ten, but two or three were missing. Often by the next evening only one of the ten was still present, the other nine having died or having fled the city for villages outside it, to get fresh air, but they took the plague with them and contaminated otherwise healthy villages. Thus the pestilence spread, killing people at an ever faster rate.
The ''Cronaca fiorentina'' also explains that the Florentine
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
s were not operating during the plague epidemic of the fourteenth century. The craft shops were closed, as were the taverns, and only the
apothecaries
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...
and the churches remained open for business during the disaster. The overcharging for certain goods and services shows the morality of those providing them, and the rate at which the plague killed people made the apothecaries and doctors rich. Others enriched by the high death rate were poultry-farmers, gravediggers, grocers selling vegetables, and those who made
poultice
A poultice, also called a cataplasm, is a soft moist mass, often heated and medicated, that is spread on cloth and placed over the skin to treat an aching, inflamed, or painful part of the body. It can be used on wounds, such as cuts.
'Poultice ...
s to draw away the infirmity of the disease.
References
{{reflist
Sources
* Avery, Catherine B., ''The New Century Italian Renaissance encyclopedia'', Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972
* Ragone, Franca, ''Giovanni Villani e i suoi continuatori. La scrittura delle cronache a Firenze nel Trecento'' ('Giovanni Villani and those who came after him. Writing the news in fourteenth-century Florence') Rome, 1998.
* Palmarocchi, R., ''Cronisti del Trecento'', Milan-Rome, 1935, pp. 647–652
Italian chronicles14th-century Latin books1385 in Europe14th century in the Republic of Florence1385 worksBlack Death