I Buried My Five Children with My Own HandsAgnolo di Tura, Chronicle of Siena, printed in Muratori’s Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. 15 (1729)Hearth Interactive Hearth Library Lodovico Antonio Muratori, ed., Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. 15 (Milan: Società Palatina, 1729), “Cronica sanese,” the year 1348. Digital text: Internet Archive item RerumItalicarumScriptores15, OCR text, extracted by code; long s printed as s. Not yet read against the page images. Muratori’s preface and notes are not copied. Author’s text only. Italian Agnolo di TuraA citizen of Siena, called “the Fat,” who wrote in his chronicle that he buried five of his children with his own hands in the plague of 1348. Siena43.3188 11.3308 epidemic, plague, pestilence The words the writers themselves used for an epidemic: Greek *loimos* and *nosos*, Latin *pestis*, *pestilentia* and *mortalitas*, Chinese 疫 *yi*, Japanese 疫瘡 "epidemic sores".1348 The year the Black Death swept through Italy, the Middle East and much of western Europe.buboes (plague swellings) The hard swellings in the groin, armpit or neck that Boccaccio called the sure sign of coming death. Florentines called them *gavoccioli*; writers on the plague from 1348 to Bombay in 1897 describe them.fear and flight How people met an epidemic: with fear and despair, by shunning the sick, or by fleeing the town.contagion The idea that disease passed from person to person by touch, breath, or objects, long before anyone knew about germs.burial and the dead How the dead were buried, mourned or left unburied: graves and funeral rites, and what became of them when an epidemic overwhelmed the living.the end of the world The belief, voiced in 1348, that the plague might be the end of the world, or the start of a new age.doctors and healers Doctors, surgeons and other healers: what the writers say they could and could not do.
E in questo tempo si cominciò in Siena la grande Mortalità, la maggiore, e la più oscura, e la più horribile, che mai si potesse dire, o immaginare; e così bastò infino all'Ottobre 1348. Ella fo di tanta oscurità, che morivano gli huomini, e le donne quasi di subito. Enfiava l'anguinaja, e 'l ditello, e di subito favellando si morivano. El Padre a pena stava a vedere il figliuolo; l'uno fratello l'altro fuggiva; la Moglie il Marito abbandonava, perciochè si diceva, che s'appiccava questa malattia nel mirare, e nell'alito; e così fu vero, che morì tante genti del mese di Maggio, di Giugno, e di Luglio, e d'Agosto, che non si trovava chi li volesse sopellire per denari. Parentado, nè Amistà, nè Prete, nè Frate andava con essi, nè Offizio si diceva. Anco colui, a cui moriva l'Attenente, uscito il fiato, sel pigliava o di dì, o di notte, e con due o tre il portavano alla Chiesa; e essi medesimi, dove più tosto potevano, il sotterravano meglio che potevano, e ricoprivano con poca terra, che cani nol mangiassero. E in molti luoghi della Città si fece fosse grandissime di larghezza, e cupe, e poi vi si mettevano dentro i Corpi, gittandoli dentro, e coprivansi con poca terra; e poi vi si mettevano altri corpi assai, e poi si coprivano di terra; e così si faceva a suolo a suolo, tanto che la fossa fusse piena; e da poi si faceva l'altra. E io Agniolo di Tura, detto Grasso, sotterrai cinque miei figliuoli in una fossa con le mie mani; e così fecero molti altri il simile; e anco furon di quelli, che erano sì mal coperti, che' cani ne traevano, e mangiavano di molti corpi per la Città. E non sonavano Campane, e non si piangeva persona, fusse di che danno si volesse, che quasi ogni persona aspettava la morte; e per sì fatto modo andava la cosa, che la gente non credeva, che nissuno ne rimanesse, e molti huomini credevano, e dicevano, questo è fine Mondo. Qui non valeva Medico, nè medicina, nè riparo alcuno; anco chi più argomento pigliava, più tosto pareva che morisse. E in effetto la mortalità fu tanto oscura, grande, e orribile, che non sarebbe penna, che la potesse scrivere; e trovossi, che moriro in Siena, e ne' Borghi dentro alla Città in questo tempo più di LXXX. mila persone.
At this time the great mortality began in Siena. It was the greatest, darkest, and most horrible that anyone could ever tell or imagine, and it lasted until October 1348. It was so dark that men and women died almost at once. Their groins and armpits swelled, and they died suddenly, while they were talking. A father would hardly stay to look at his son. Brother fled from brother. Wives abandoned their husbands, because people said this sickness was caught by looking at the sick and by their breath. And it was true. So many people died in May, June, July, and August that no one could be found to bury them, even for money. No relative, no friend, no priest or friar went with the dead, and no funeral office was said. When someone’s relative died, as soon as the breath was gone, he picked up the body himself, by day or by night. With two or three others he carried it to the church. There they buried it themselves, wherever they could do it soonest and as best they could, and covered it with a little earth so the dogs would not eat it. In many parts of the city, very wide and deep pits were dug. The bodies were thrown into them and covered with a little earth. Then many more bodies were put in and covered with earth. This was done layer upon layer until the pit was full, and then another was dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura, called the Fat, buried five of my children in one pit with my own hands. Many others did the same. Some bodies were covered so poorly that the dogs dragged them out and ate many corpses all over the city. No bells were rung. No one was mourned, whatever the loss, because almost everyone was waiting for death. Things went so far that people did not believe anyone would be left alive. Many men believed it, and said, “This is the end of the world.” Here no doctor, no medicine, and no remedy did any good. The more measures people took, the sooner they seemed to die. In truth the mortality was so dark, so great, and so horrible that no pen could write it down. It was found that more than 80,000 people died in Siena and its suburbs at this time.