Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio, a 14th-century Italian writer renowned for his tales during the Black Death, joins historian David Musgrove to delve into this catastrophic pandemic. They discuss the plague's deadly spread across Europe, its devastating impact, and the current understanding of its symptoms through recent DNA findings. The conversation also highlights misguided health beliefs and the myriad of religious and social repercussions at the time. They even touch on the potential resurgence of the disease in a modern context, emphasizing the role of antibiotics.