The most horrible plague in Italian history claimed nearly 40% of life and directly changed human history.

In the autumn of 1347, the twilight of Europe shone on the sparkling sea, and merchant ships slowly sailed into the port of Messina in Sicily, Italy. These ships from Genoa not only brought precious goods from the East, but also mysterious exotic customs and wealth, which disturbed the tranquility of Europe in the Middle Ages under the impetus of sea breeze. People are busy exchanging goods in the port, enjoying the prosperity and joy brought by business, but no one expected that the shadow of death had quietly come.

The source of the plague is those rats in groups in the cabin. They carry the deadly Yersinia pestis and quietly penetrate into every corner of the port. All these disasters originated from the battlefield in Mongolia. At that time, when the Mongolian army besieged Kafa City, it threw the infected bodies into the city and infected the residents in the city. With the footsteps of businessmen and rats, the plague spread from the Middle East to Europe.

The port of Messina became the first battlefield of the Black Death. With the continuous navigation of merchant ships, the plague spread like wildfire and swept across Italy. It mercilessly took countless lives, turned the vibrant and lively city into a dead ruin, and the laughter of the past was replaced by the silence of death.

Boccaccio, a great literary master at that time, vividly described the horror brought by this disaster in decameron. On the street, people suddenly fell down, and the bodies at home rotted, giving off a stench, until the neighbors noticed that death was coming quietly. Piles of bodies were transported to the church, and the cemetery could no longer accommodate them. The citizens had to dig huge potholes outside the city and bury the bodies in batches.

Under the shadow of this death, people’s hearts are full of helplessness and fear. Many people tried to escape from this disaster, eager to escape the shadow of death. However, the flight of most people only made the spread of the plague more rapid. The Catholic Church sternly appealed to believers not to escape, but in endless despair, people began to look for various ways to survive.

A heretical belief called "whipping school" came into being at this time. Believers beat themselves with whips, trying to redeem their sins in this extreme way and praying for God’s forgiveness. However, neither escape, prayer nor self-punishment can stop the pace of death, and the Black Death is still raging.

The plague has reduced Italy’s population by more than one third, and the death rate in the worst-hit areas is as high as 35% to 40%. This unprecedented disaster immersed Italy in deep sorrow and despair, but it also promoted the process of history. Under the heavy pressure of death, people began to reflect and think.

This disaster has revealed the importance of medicine and knowledge. In response to this epidemic, in April 1348, Florence City Council set up an epidemic prevention committee and began to implement the isolation system. The government issues health certificates to uninfected people and severely punishes those who violate the isolation regulations. Although this measure failed to completely eradicate the plague, it provided valuable experience for future generations’ epidemic prevention work, and the isolation and quarantine system gradually became one of the important methods to deal with the epidemic.

At the same time, the spread of the Black Death broke the shackles of medieval theology on people’s thoughts. People began to reflect on blind worship and superstition, and longed for the power of reason and knowledge. The theological concept of anti-intelligence is pale and powerless in the face of the horror of plague. People began to tend to explore science and rationality, and the seeds of the Renaissance quietly took root in this longing, and gradually blossomed with the passage of time.

Such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and other great artists and scientists, their wisdom and talent have opened a new chapter in human history. Italy, a land that was hit hard by the Black Death, eventually became the cradle of the Renaissance, which deeply influenced the history and culture of Europe as a whole. It is against this background of pain and despair that the Italians found the spark of hope, lit the glory of civilization, once again lit up the whole of Europe and pushed the wheel of history forward.