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Agnolo di Tura

A 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.

I Buried My Five Children with My Own Hands

Agnolo di Tura, Chronicle of Siena, printed in Muratori’s Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. 15 (1729) · 1348 or soon after

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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.

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.”