The Decameron
word of advice : This article contains spoiler for The Decameron .
Summary
The Decamerongives the show the position of the characters by leave out many absorbing and more New particular about the Black Plague . Set in 1348 , Netflix ’s newest full stop spell , centered aroundthe Black Plague , tells the narrative of nobles and their servants who flee to a Pancho Villa to escape the calamity and death in Florence , Italy . The show maintain a shocking number of true facts from the time period of time , such as the flagellant , the belief that the plague was God ’s penalty , and the notion that it was transmitted through scent .
However , the show picks and choose what detail to admit because it tells the story for the most part from the perspective ofThe Decameron ’s principal characters . As such , there ’s no discourse of what really causes the plague , all the different forms , or how to treat it . Additionally , detail discovered at a late date are omitted . These contingent are just as interesting as the fancied story , though .
After look on Netflix ’s The Decameron , alike menstruum television set shows with a light , New approach to history act as the perfect follow - up .
10The Black Death Wasn’t The First Plague Pandemic
The First Pandemic Took Place About 800 Years Earlier
Netflix’sThe Decameronfocuses specifically on the Black Death , which hit Florence in March 1348 . Due to being a geological period piece , The Decamerondoesn’t include many particular about the plague that were n’t known to the character . As such , they leave out the fact that the Black Death was the second major bubonic pest pandemic . The first recorded pandemic of bubonic plague commence with the Plague of Justinian around 541 CE , followed by at least fifteen major waves .
accord toOrigins : Current issue in Historical Perspective , by testing dental pulp magazine from bones , palaeogeneticists confirm that this pandemic unfold into the 8th hundred . Scholars debate the specific extraction of this plague , with some pointing to Africa while others fence that it came from Central Asia . The pandemic principally touch the Mediterranean Basin and the former Roman Empire , but it also hit Germany and Great Britain .
9There are Three Major Types Of Plague
Bubonic Was The Most Prevalent But Not The Only Type Of Plague During The Black Death
Based on the symptom shown , Netflix’sThe Decameronfocuses principally on the bubonic plague . While this character was the most common form of the titular illness during the Black Death , two other major human body of pestilence exist as well . The pestilence is stimulate by the zoonotic bacteria Yersinia pestis , which is predominantly obtain in small mammal and their flea . The three main type of pestilence are bubonic , pulmonary , and septicemic , which taint the lymph client , lung , and blood , severally .
The bubonic plague spreads in the first place through the bite of parasitic bugs like fleas and lice . pulmonary plague is the most pestilent and tight - acting variety and the only kind that spread out from human to man , transmitting through air droplet . This is the most likely cause of thedeaths of Dioneo and Ruggiero inThe Decameron . Septicemic plague can overspread either from the bite of an infected bug or through lower-ranking infection ( bacteria move to the blood from another part of the eubstance ) . Of all these physique of plague , the only one that causes genus Bubo is the bubonic pest .
8The Decameron Leaves Out Symptoms Of The Plague
Buboes From The Plague Turned Black Or Burst
For all of its strong suit in accurately portraying the mentality of people during the Black Plague , The Decameronshowed very few of the symptoms of the illness . The three main symptoms shown were small genus Bubo ( egotistical lymph nodes that make a jut ) , a coughing , and a pallid complexion . However , harmonize to theCenters for Disease Control And Prevention(CDC ) , the contagion can also cause fever , chill , dead body aches , weakness , sickness , inner bleeding , gangrene , pneumonia , and dresser pain in the neck . In the most severe signifier of septicemic plague , hoi polloi can bleed from the mouthpiece , nose , or rectum .
to boot , The Decameron ’s delineation of buboes minimizes the most disturbing visual aspect of the pestis . Buboes can swell up to the size of an orange or egg , not just the small bumps shown in the show . They also only appeared where lymph lymph gland were , not all over the body . On top of the size departure , the self-conceited lymph nodes from the plague often plough black . The slough and shameful buboes are the source of the 2nd plague pandemic ’s nickname(viaNational Geographic ) . instead , the buboes break open and become filled with pus .
7Plague Potions For Wealthy People Frequently Contained Opium
Dioneo Would Have Dosed His Patients With Opium
Throughout the first one-half of Netflix’sThe Decameron , Dioneo stool many tonics and potion for Tindaro , despite him not needing them . Potions were a plebeian , albeit ineffective , remedy for the Black Death . According toWorld account ’s article on practice of medicine during the pestilence , one expensive and rare potion contained water and ground “ unicorn hooter , ” which was typically powdered rhino motor horn or walrus ivory . However , the much more vulgar infestation potion for rich masses was call theriac , which contained up to eighty ingredients and a massive amount of opium . The latter item sure is n’t mentioned inThe Decameron .
The spread formed with these factor would be mixed with syrup to make it a liquid state called treacle . Considering the popularity of this potion and the noble status of everyone at Villa Santa , it ’s highly likely that Dioneo would have been unnecessarily dose Tindaro and the others with opium inThe Decameron . In all loveliness , the dangers of the substance were n’t known at the fourth dimension , but it does change how terrorise his action mechanism were when look at it with the knowledge we have now .
6Physicians Treated The Plague with Bloodletting And Leeching
“Bad Blood” Was Believed By Physicians To Cause The Plague
In summation to potion , two plebeian handling of the plague not depicted inThe Decameronare leeching and bloodletting . The understanding of medicament has drastically changed since mediaeval times . accord toWorld story , Medieval doctors understood that the body was made of four types of humor , or bodily fluid – yellowish gall , line , phlegm , and black bile . All illnesses were understood as an imbalance of these humors or impure humors , which is involve by Dioneo ahead of time on in the serial .
for cure the plague , physicians would engage in one of two methods of hit the “ bad blood . ”Leeching demand aesculapian professionals placing leeches on the body to suck in out the blood and was reserved for the tributary . Bloodletting , on the other paw , involves cutting open an artery or vein to get disembarrass of the impure blood line and balance the humour . This choice was more popular for less flush patients . apparently , neither of these treatment was effectual , but they could jibe well with the blue comedy tone ifThe Decameronseason 2happens
5Servants Had More Power During The Plague
The Death Toll Made Servants And Serfs In High Demand
ThroughoutThe Decameron , Misia , Sirisco , Licisca , Stratilia , and Filomena ( while she ’s pretend to be Licisca ) are treated horribly and expected to take it . There ’s an melody of understanding that they will be supercede and fox out into the plague - struck Florence if they do n’t do everything that ’s asked of them . However , this does n’t fully reflect the realism of that time period . According toWorld History ’s clause on the effects of the Black Death , this period of time allow for a ascent in magnate and wealth for the peasant and serfsto the point that it helped impart down feudalism .
Due to the mellow demise bell , serf and servant became in such high demand that they started negotiating for more wage and effective treatment . This ameliorate the biography of the working class in mediaeval Europe . free-base on this information , all the form - class characters inThe Decameronwould likely have been embolden to take for more and be less horrendous of being fired .
4The Black Plague Inadvertently Furthered Women’s Rights
Women Were Given Rights After The Death Toll Of The Black Plague
As the most unlikable character in The Decameron , Pampinea treat people in repulsive way . However , the one second where we can really sympathize with her is when she enounce that her entire note value is her dowry . The devaluation of women is wrong , no matter how terrible an individual is . However , she would have had it much better had she lasted to the close of the plague . fit in toWorld account , after the Black Death , woman gained these notable rights :
This would obviously have benefitted Paminea and Filomena more than the other women inThe Decamerondue to their high - class status . However , the rights would theoretically have utilize to all the women in the show . Sadly , the aristocracy and the Catholic Church eventually took these rights aside again .
3The Concept Of Quarantining Was First Introduced During The Black Death
The Costal Town Of Ragusa Introduced The First Quarantine
BecauseThe Decameronis set in an inland Italian metropolis in 1348 , the show does n’t touch on the construct of quarantining – though it could be argued that the guests of Villa Santa are quarantining together . That ’s because the first quarantine come about in the urban center of Ragusa ( now Dubrovnik , Croatia ) . agree toHistory.com , Ragusa eliminate lawmaking mandating that all incoming ships and trade caravans – both cargo and passengers – from pest - infested area go into 30 - day isolation(called trentino ) to forbid the contagion of pest .
Doctor had the right hand to foreshorten or lengthen this period , leading to the development of the 40 - sidereal day closing off ( called quarantino , which was later translated into quarantine ) . This urban center also adjust up the first pestilence hospital , which was meant to treat the great unwashed with the pestilence and quarantine those coming into the urban center . It ’s enthralling to know that they understood the concept of brooding and social isolation , even if they did n’t realise how the human torso exercise .
2Humans Were The Biggest Carrier Of The Black Plague
Rats Were Previously Believed To Be The Primary Carriers Of The Plague During The Second Plague Pandemic
At the metre of the Black Plague , there was zero clean intellect of what make or conduct the malady . Giovanni Boccaccio’sThe Decameron , on which the Netflix show is loosely based , describes the illness as either being “ propagate by the influence of the heavenly bodies , or get off upon us mortals by God in His just wrath by fashion of requital for our evil . ”
According toClinical Microbiology and Infection(viaPubMed ) , the bacterium Yersinia pestis was identified and cultured in 1894 , and the transmittal of bacteria from fleas to rodents to humans was find in 1898 . This became the leave agreement of how the pestilence spread out so fast during the Black Death .
However , in 2018 , scientists at the University of Oslo created a numerical model to test three transmission methods : pulmonic plague , rats , and human flea and insect . equate it to the mortality data for nine epidemic within the Black Death , they surprisingly found that human fleas and lice most closely aligned with the tangible - life data(viaCNN Health ) . The study ’s results point to human beings as the biggest carriers of the infestation instead of rat .
Custom Image by Debanjana Chowdhury
1The Plague Still Exists Today
Antibiotics Are An Effective Treatment For Almost All Cases Of Plague Nowadays
The last pestis pandemic occurred in 1894 , ebbing and flowing until it finally end in 1959 . Based on the last estimates fromGAVI : The Vaccine Alliance , the three pandemics took collectively 117 million to 262 million lives . However , the fact that the world has n’t had another plague pandemic does n’t mean the illness has disappeared . today , plague is obtain mostly in modest rodent . According to theWorld Health Organization , around 500 to 1000 human cases of the plague chance annually around the world , with most of the cases occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo , Peru , and Madagascar .
The disease has a casing - human death ratio of 30 - 100 % if left untreated , with pneumonic plague vote out people within 18 to 24 hour of onset . While most cases can be cured with antibiotics , antibiotic - resistant strains have popped up a handful of times . plainly , medieval TV showslikeThe Decameronwon’t part information about the present Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , so this information may not be well - known to viewer .
source : Origins : Current Events in Historical Perspective , Centers for Disease Control And Prevention , National Geographic , World History , World History , History.com , PubMed , CNN Health , GAVI : The Vaccine Alliance , andWorld Health Organization
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