The Black Death

What were the economic foundations of the civilisations of Florence and Venice?

In the towns on the Italian Peninsula, the means by which they developed an income and industry was varied – for example, the manufacture of arms in Milan, maritime trade in Genoa and particularly Venice, banking and textiles in Florence and uniquely, the pilgrim trades in Rome/the Papal States. What is most interesting, I think, about Florence and Venice is that due to their governance as “republics”, it was not deemed wrong for the elite to engage in trade, for they were keen to be seen as regular citizens; as one Spanish Ambassador exclaimed - “they are not forbidden to engage in commerce, nor is it thought unseemly for them to do so, although being rulers and not subjects they might well be ashamed of it. On the contrary, such activity adds to their reputation and does not diminish it”.

FLORENCE:

Florence’s economy was founded on banking and textiles. The Florentines were cautious traders and this enabled the economy to remain stable, with little fluctuation. The manufacture of cloth and wool was the most prominent industry in Florence, due to the prime position of the Arno River which enabled the washing, treating and dyeing of the wool, in addition to ensuring that the finished products could be transported to Pisa to be shipped around the world. The river also allowed for the import untreated, unwashed wool from England. As Robert Hole endorses, Florence was a “manufacturing centre... raw materials were transported to the city and finished goods carried from the city, by water”. Surprisingly though, the people of Florence were very conservative in their attire, despite the beautiful products produced in their town. Due to the infertile soil of the Contado, this was the main area of employment, with over 30 000 people working in the textile industry. With the rise of the Black Death in 1348, over a third of the population were killed, resulting in a massive economic slump.

This map is of Florence in around the year 1400

Gold florin

During the Renaissance period, the Florentine florin became an international currency, chiefly due to the propagation of Medici banks around Europe. However, as Gene Brucker outlines in his book Renaissance Florence (1969), Florence employed two currencies – the silver coinage (which was minted with the head of Lorenzo de Medici on one side, as you can see here) and the gold florin. The silver currency hailed from medieval system of lire (pounds), soldi (shillings) and denari (pence); 12 denari to the soldi, 20 soldi to the lire. Gold florins were worth approximately 75 soldi or 3 and a quarter lire (in 1400). The price of a bushel of grain fluctuated between 15 soldi. (in times of plenty) to 60 s. and more in times of famine.

Silver soldi

Florence also had developed a series of guilds upon which the political system was based, yet these guilds were also the foundation of the economy, for they regulated the prices for which goods could be sold, as well as the quality of the products. Centered in the Orsanmichele, there were 7 major guilds (arti maggiori) and 14 minor guilds (arti minori). These guilds traded locally, domestically and also internationally – Florentine traders moved from the Netherlands to the Iberian Peninsula, to Constantinople and the major cities of Italy. As membership of the guilds was one of the criteria for holding public office, it is clear that in the case of Florence, the political and economic were inextricably linked.

VENICE:

Venice’s economy was established solely on trade. As Venice was founded on an archipelago, that is, a series of islands in the north east of Italy, its only naturally occurring commodities were salt and fish. It therefore developed one of the most highly sophisticated ship building industries in the world – as FC Lane outlines, during the height of the Renaissance the “Arsenal” where the ships were built covered 60 acres and employed approximately 2 000 men. Known as a “maritime empire”, it was the monopoly which Venice had over trade in the Adriatic which ensured its dominance – it had easy access to luxuries from Asia and the Middle East. When the “New World” was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, so began the decline of Venetian dominance of maritime trade.

This map is one of the earliest woodcuts by Jacopo de Barbari, 1500

A Venetian product

As we saw through the study of the Crusades, Venice had interests in many different city states, and traded all over the world. During the Renaissance, Venice was a centre of trade for the entire world. Venice sold sugar and wine from the Aegean islands; spices, porcelain and pearls from the Far East; gems, mineral dyes, peacock feathers, perfumes, ceramics, alum and textiles such as silks, cottons, brocades and carets from Asia Minor; minerals, silver, copper and iron from Germany; wool, woven cloth and tin from Flanders and England; timber from the Dolomites and the Adriatic area; furs, grain and unfortunately slaves from the Black Sea region. As well as these luxury goods bought from other lands, Venice’s economy was partly made up of locally sold products such as glass, other textiles such as patterned silks, crafts and later printed books. Indeed, Venice is still famous for its Murano glass production.

Why was trade so important to these cities on the Italian Peninsula to maintain their economies?

--Rebecca

What were the economic foundations, legal and political structures of Venice in 14^th century…?

Margaret King's chapter offers great insight into the economic, legal and political structure of Venice during the period 1250 – 1350. Venice was an autonomous republic, the ruling class being the wealthy merchant class, the founders of the city. In 1297 this elite merchant class became the Venetian nobility, in what was known as the SERRATA (the closing of the Grand Council), which saw membership of The Grand Council become hereditary. The members of the Grand Council were responsible for the governance, laws, international contracts of trade and the security for all of Venice.


As Rebecca outlined, commerce in Venice thrived in the trade of iron, salt, gold, timber, wine and fish, to protect the interests of profitable trade the Grand Council, built the “Arsenal” complex, to enable the manufacture of huge galleys in which space was rented by merchants and ensured the safety of goods in international trade. Shipbuilding in itself became a very profitable and important part of the Venetian economy and employed a vast number of citizens from all classes.


King portrays Venice as a city whose citizens was prospering in a time of contentment, although not themselves being able to be part of the Grand Council,  the ruling class kept their citizens happy by providing adequately for their needs, not imposing high taxes, engaging them in war or giving them a cause for mistrust.
--Stacey

Petrarch in Posterity

Petrarch (1304-1374), born Francesco Petrarca in Arezzo to an exiled Florentine, was raised and educated in Avignon, the home of the papal court, where Petrarch, before studying law at nearby Montpellier and later in Bologne. However, this he viewed as a waste of time due to his inclination toward philosophy and literature. Living in various cities in Italy and France and travelling widely throughout Europe for his own enjoyment, Petrarch worked as a clergyman and diplomat providing him with the opportunity pursue his interests to further travel and write.

Initially, he focussed largely on the writing of poetry, and especially sonnets, publishing the collections Bucolicum Carmen, Canzoniere and Trionfi. Other individual works include Laura (a tale of his unrequited love with a married woman whom he had glimpsed at church), De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae (a ‘self-help’ book), Itinerarium (a travel guide to the Holy Land and Africa (his epic about the Second Punic War). Eventually, Petrarch shifted his focus to philosophical writings, such as De Otio Religiosorum (On Religious Leisure), De Vita Solitaria (On the Solitary Life) and De sui ipsius et multorum aliorum ignorantia (On his Own Ignorance and that of Many Others). His philosophical pieces particularly focussed on the sense of the self, a popular subject for medieval philosophers, which he discussed in Secretum, De Viris Illustribum, Ascent to Mont Ventoux and, ultimately, two collections, Epistolae Familiares (Familiar Letters) and Seniles (Of Old Age), in which his Letter to Posterity was published.

Petrarch

In this final piece, Petrarch appears to be in two minds over how he believes he will be remembered by history. On one hand, he seems to doubt that ‘[his] poor little name may travel far in space and time’ and is quite critical of his own life and achievements. Yet, by contrast, he seems to believe that his name does indeed have a chance of being preserved through his works as he addresses his autobiography not to his contemporaries or even his own family, but to future generations of scholars.

Ultimately, however, the proof of his survival in posterity lies in his legacy. As a writer, Petrarch is classed alongside Dante and Boccaccio as the three greatest and most influential writers of his time. His poems, three of which were put to music in the 19^th Century by Romantic composer Franz Liszt, inspired the form of Petrarchan sonnets and, subsequently, poets through the generations, most notably, Shakespeare. Additionally, his Letter to Posterity, as one of very few autobiographies of the pre-modern era, ranks him amongst St Augustine and Abelard. Furthermore, in the sixteenth century Pietro Bembo used Petrarch’s works as his model when constructing the ideal of the Italian language. Lastly, Petrarch is heralded as the ‘father of humanism’, a key ideal of the Renaissance, because of his philosophical writings, thus ultimately proving himself to be a pillar in one of the most crucial movements in European, indeed world history.

--Kelsey 

The Black Death and Its Impacts
The flourishing nature of Europe interrupted when it was struck with one of the largest demographic disasters in European history, the Black Death. It arose during the year of 1348 in the summer, however it was brought into Sicily in 1347 after merchant galleys returned from their trading with Byzantium and in the Crimea. The rats which carried the plague-infected fleas had gained access to Europe through these ships and thus due to trade the Black Plague had spread.

The Black plague was able to take on three forms of infection:

• Bubonic: This form was the most common form of the plague and is a bacterial infection of the lymph system, which leads to it becoming swollen and inflamed. This disease was transmitted from rats to humans via the oriental rat flea.
• Septicemic: If the bacillus enters the bloodstream, it is able to cause death within a few hours. The symptoms of this form of infection were rapid heart rate, severe headache, nausea, vomiting, and delirium.
• Pneumonic: Is a form in which the bacillus can infect a person without the flea or rat bite, as it can be breathed in through respiratory droplets in the air. This infection can inhibit the lungs and can kill within a few days

Margaret L. King identifies various social and economic impacts associated with the Black Death. Socially, the plague was devastating to the population, as it wiped out 1/3 of the populace in some areas of Europe and in others even as much as 2/3. It affected both the cities and countryside and impacted the movement and production of art and literature. Due to the causes of the plague being unknown at the time, doctors would refuse to treat patients and in Giovanni Boccaccio’s first book is a description of the plagues corrosive effects upon the human soul. He tells of how “brother abandoned brother, uncle abandoned nephew, sister left brother, and very often wife abandoned husband, and–even worse, almost unbelievable – fathers and mothers neglected to tend and care for their children”. This account is a clear demonstration of a broken society during the plague. Economically, due the death of so many in such a short time the cities had to cope with a labor supply even more greatly decimated than in the countryside due to a generally higher urban death rate. Also, there was too much supply and not enough need of goods, therefore prices of agricultural goods lowered and this impacted the peasants since they couldn’t make enough money from grain sales to afford other necessary materials.
--Michael

Do the documents relating to the Black Death reflect King’s understanding of the impact of the Black Death?

“AND THERE WERE NONE WHO WEPT FOR ANY DEATH, FOR EVERYONE EXPECTED TO DIE” – Cronica sense, eds A Lisini & F. Iacometti, Rerum italiarum scriptores

While Margaret L. H. King briefly addresses the central social impacts of the Black Death in Italy in her book “Renaissance In Italy”, there are multiple implications of the disease expressed in accounts from the period that she does not identify.

Perhaps the most potent impact of the Bubonic Plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1400 was the disintegration of the social value of selflessness as individuals sought primarily to safeguard themselves against contamination and exposure to the disease. This consequence of the Plague is recognized both by King and sources derived from the period, evident through her statement that in many affected areas, “the clergy, like the citizenry, took refuge or fled” as well as accounts of a Flemish Chronicler in 1347 which stated that infected sailors were driven from Genoa “by fiery arrows and divers engines of war” when their mortal affliction became known.

Moreover, the abandonment of the Christian value of “Love thy neighbour” is a fundamental aspect of King’s understanding of the impact of the Plague, a view that corresponds, and perhaps derives from, the periodcal works of Giovanni Boccaccio composed in 1348. King exemplifies her acceptance of this implication of the plague through directly quoting Boccaccio’s assertion that “No-one cared for his neighbour”. This point is further illustrated by the Italian writer’s statement that “scarce any neighbour took heed of any other”.

The three living and the three dead

Moreover, King’s contention that the medicine of the time was insufficient to deal with the outbreak of such a potent and unprecedented pandemic, thus exacerbating its impact on society, is reflected in multiple accounts from the mid 14^th Century. For instance, her statement that the physicians and doctors of the time “knew nothing of infection, contagion, or quarantine” is demonstrated in a document prescribed by the Medical Faculty of the University of Paris in October 1348 that listed a number of recommendations to prevent contracting the Plague that revolved essentially around sleeping patterns, diet and sexual activity. The extreme measures recommended to avoid the disease illustrate both public lack of knowledge of the affliction as well as the fear that this lack of knowledge engendered.

Images of the dead and dying

However, a crucial result of the plague that King neglects to address was the hedonism and indulgence that many lived by in the hope of enjoying their life while they were still capable. Boccaccio states in his piece that many elected to “drink deep, to enjoy life, to go their way with singing and solace” thinking such an attitude to be “the best medicine for this plague”.

In addition, King fails to address the disintegration of agricultural and manual labour as a result of the Plague as farmers began to abandon the cultivation of their crops and care only for themselves. This abandonment of fields and farms is expressed in William Edendon’s, the Bishop of Winchester, account of the Plague approaching England in October 1348 in which he observes, “fruitful country places with the tillers” had become “deserts and abandoned to barrenness”. This cessation of local produce is also illustrated in William of Dene’s description of the Plague in England, composed in 1349 in which he claims that the “brethren” of the monastery of Rochester “had great difficulty in getting enough to eat”. It appears that King has failed to acknowledge this particular impact of the Plague.

Lastly, King’s interpretation of the most vital outcome of the Plague is that it precipitated the proliferation of humanism and heralded new expression in visual arts. While King retrospectively considers this to be a positive implication of the disastrous disease, evident through her statement that throughout the reconstruction of Italy after the plague, “renewed development of the intellectual movement” initiated, sources from the time take a more skeptical approach to these changes. This is perhaps most potent in Matteo Villani’s description of Florence after the plague in which he asserts that the remaining people “abandoned themselves to the sin of gluttony” and invented “strange and unaccustomed fashions and indecent manners in their garments.”

Hence, while there are some similarities in the perceived impacts of the Plague between Margaret L. H. King and sources derived from the period, there are also some central differences.

--Hugo Dean

Explain the nature of the ‘flourishing urban civilization’ that Margaret King describes in Italy prior to the Black Death.
Prior to the cataclysm of the Black Death that swept through Italy in 1384, Italian society was transformed into a stage of urban consciousness and commercial prosperity, constituting the foundations for the Renaissance civilization. During this time, the affluence of the merchant oligarchy led to significant urban renewal in both Florence and Venice, two of Italy’s leading economic centers. In this ‘Age of Republics’, Florence and Venice saw a vast increase in urban development, coinciding with the thriving economy. Cathedrals, guildhalls, government buildings, palaces, hospitals, bridges, and roads were erected, producing a new standard of living unlike anywhere else in Europe. As Italian culture was dynamically changing, a new aesthetic vision was conceived, evident in the distinct style of buildings and urban spaces created. Such new developments, including the Palazzo Pubblico, solidified Italy’s ‘civic monumentality’, as a place of vibrant culture and substantial commercial prosperity. As the towns expanded, the walls of Florence were enlarged out of necessity to accommodate this thriving urban society, serving as an indication of the prosperous economy.

While Venice’s commercial success came from marine trade, Florence’s wealth was generated from banking and wool manufacturing. The close relationship with the papacy enabled merchants to assume the position of the Pope’s tax agent, whilst also benefiting the textile industry. As papal forces defeated imperial ambitions in the Two Sicilies, Florentine merchants were able to attain raw wool necessary for manufacturing. Pioneering the wool industry, Florence was the leading manufacture of the commodity, which generated the wealth necessary for the transformation of the town. Out of this economic success, culture was correspondingly transformed, with a new emphasis placed on quality and refinement. Revolutionizing the culture, this change affected the arts, producing ‘a young generation of thinkers, artists and writers’ and new innovative ideas and forms of expression.

In addition to the urban expansion, the population had dramatically increased by 1250, as recorded in Giovanni Villani’s Chronicle, Florence had reached an estimated 90,000 residents in the town alone, with an additional 80,000 dwelling within the Florentine district. With the good economy, birth rates continued to rise, as did the number of children learning to read. The number of guilds and the annual Florentine food consumption, as recorded by Villani, serves as another indication of the thriving economy and commercial success of the time. With this success, Venice and Florence dynamically developed during this ‘Age of Republics’, significantly changing Italian society and culture, prior to the calamity of the Black Death.
--Sarah