Boccaccio's The Decameron: Effects of Black Death on Economic, Social, and Religious Life

Boccaccio’s “The Decameron.”
Name
Affiliation
Course
Tutor
Boccaccio’s “The Decameron.”
The Black Death plague between 1347 and 1350 frustrated the people of Florence, changing their social, economic, and religious lives drastically. The community did not precedent the occurrence of the sickness. Consequently, the plague shook them all around, leading to a significant transformation of their lives. In addition, the changes resulted in a renaissance in Italy's history with a great discovery of art and literature. The sickness spread quickly in Florence, and nobody, including the rich, could avoid or prevent infection, explain the high mortality rate in the city. The plague resulted in social breakdown, economic crisis, and diminishing religious practices in Florence, affecting the people living in the city directly.
Economic effects
The social impacts of the plague on the people of Florence recorded at a high rate. The city experienced a high mortality rate that approximately halved the total population, leading to a significant decline in the labor force. On the other hand, the wages for both agricultural and urban laborers rose profoundly due to the increased demand. Hence, the survivors of the plague had high living standards with increased amounts of earnings (Italian Studies Department's Virtual Humanities Lab, 2010). The decrease in population resulted in improvement in technology as the operating industries in the city had to deal with all tasks, including the labor-intensive specifications. Although the change might have occurred drastically, demanding maximum effort and concentration, it promoted the development of the city to profound levels through the adoption of various devices to help in the completion of multiple jobs (Italian Studies Department's Virtual Humanities Lab, 2010). Also, the declined population disregarded feudalism. Although the phase disadvantaged the local lords in the city, the serfs gained a significant of benefitting of regaining their freedom in the ownership of property. All these implications resulted in adverse inflation in the economy since the city did not expect the plague and hence did not have any measures to attack the prevailing circumstance (Lambrecht, 2019). The economy underwent a great shock, requiring nothing but hard work towards stability despite the hardships such as labor shortage.
Social effects
As most of the Italians in Florence became wealthy, they entered a norm of social class distinction depending on their levels of earning. “This was crucial, as the increased wealth of Italy allowed the elite, such as the De Medici’s in Florence to become the patrons of great artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci” (Italian Studies Department's Virtual Humanities Lab, 2010). Most people in ...