The Black Death

The Black Death was the most devastating disease during human history and it occurred during the Renaissance. It was an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague which is caused by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis. It was originated in China and was passed on by merchants who crossed the Silk Road until it got to Russia. Later on, this disease was all over Europe. The Black Death killed a 60 percent of Europe's population, which is a big number considering the population at the time. It took 150 years for the population to recover. 


The disease started all because people were not so clean at the time. Fleas carry the bacteria, fleas were on rats and people didn't care about rats at the time, they let them walk over their food, etc, and just didn't care. At first huge buboes appeared over the neck and under the armpits, later on large black spots appeared on the arms, legs, and the rest of the body. When these dark spots appeared it was sure you were going to die. Bocaccio describes the symptoms of the plague vividly: "In men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumours in the groin or armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg...From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous. As the gavocciolo had been and still was an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they showed themselves." 

The Characteristics of the Renaissance

Renaissance means "rebirth". This is a cultural movement that took place from the 14th to the 17th century. It began in Italy and it later on spread to the rest of Europe. Some characterisctics of this movement is that painters stated using perspective on ther work. Also, there was an educational reform. People were more humanisctic and the idea of the "Renaissance Man" was developed. A "Renaissance Man" was someone who was good at everything he did. In the religious point of view since people started being more humanistic there was a backdrop in christianity, there were less believers. People were aware of the change, everybody knew that eveything was different. Leonardo DaVinci and Michaelangelo are the two most famous painters of the Renaissance. The made magnificent paintings with perspective. Michaelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sixtine Chapel and Leonardo DaVinci is best known for The Mona Lisa. It has been known that The Mona Lisa was originally a self-portrait of Leonardo but then he decided to make her a woman. There are many curious things about Leonardo's paintings: in most of them, there is always somebody pointing up.

As said before, the Renaissance started in Italy and it spread slowly through Europe. The invention of the printing press allowed this to happen much faster. After Italy, it spread to Italy's neighbor country, Portugal. It arrived because of Italian merchants. After Portugal, it got to Spain, it first started in the city of Valencia and then to the rest of Spain. Then, the renaissance got to Northern Europe, and change here was so significant that it was called the Northern Renaissance. In Englad the greatest change it had was in the English literature. As an example of this there is William Shakespeare, one of the greatests poets in history. Later it spread to Germany and Hungary at lastly it got to Russia. The Renaissance affected Russia in many ways, but mainly in architecture. Prince Ivan the II introduced this type of architecture to the Russians. And a Russian monk was the first to make Russian Vodka.