Catania

Quapropter Messanenses hunc casum terribilem & monstruosum intuentes, migrare de civitate quam mori potius elegerunt; & non solum in urbem veniendi, sed etiam appropinquandi ad eam negabatur. In aeris & in vineis extra civitatem cum eorum familiis statuerunt mansiones. Aliqui vero & pro majori parte in civitatem Catanie perrexerunt, confisique quod beata Cataniensis Agatha virgo eosdem tali infirmitate liberaret.

Seeing this terrible and monstrous thing, the people of Messina chose to leave the city rather than die. No one was allowed into the city, or even near it. They set up homes with their families on the threshing floors and in the vineyards outside the walls. But most went on to the city of Catania. They trusted that the blessed virgin Agatha of Catania would free them from the sickness.

Inclita Regina Helisabeth Regina Sicilie, existens in civitate Catanie, don Fridericum filium suum, qui in civitate Messane tunc temporis aderat, ad se festinanter jussit venire; qui cum galeis Venetorum Cataniam festinanter applicuit.

Queen Elisabeth of Sicily was in the city of Catania. She sent for her son Don Frederick, who was in Messina at the time, to come to her at once. He hurried to Catania on Venetian galleys.

Sed pro majori parte cives Messanam deserunt, alii in Calabriam, alii per diversas partes Sicilie, & specialiter in civitatem Catanie sunt dispersi. Sed quid profuit eis lapsus fuge, quia egritudo jam concepta & fixa eorum corpora comeabat? Qui fugientes, aliqui defecerunt in via, in campis, in maritimis, in mari, in casali Mascalarum, in silvis, in vallis, & diversis locis incongruis.

Most of the citizens deserted Messina. Some scattered into Calabria, others to different parts of Sicily, above all to the city of Catania. But what good was running away? The sickness had already taken hold and was eating at their bodies. Some fell dead as they fled, on the road, in the fields, on the shore, at sea, in the village of Mascali, in the woods and valleys, and in all sorts of wretched places.

Quid dicemus de civitate Catanie, que oblivioni tradita est? Tanta fuit pestis predicta exorta in ea, quod non solum pustule ille, que antrachi vulgari vocabulo nuncupabantur, sed etiam glandule quedam in diversis corporum membris nascebantur, nunc in pectine, alie in tibiis, alie in brachiis, alie in gutture.

And what shall we say of the city of Catania, which has been left out of this account? The plague grew so strong there that not only did the pustules appear that people called antrachi, but also swellings in different parts of the body: some in the groin, others on the legs, others on the arms, others on the throat.