Template:1348-05-00-Siena

1348, May

The Black Death ravages in Siena.

La mortalità cominciò in Siena di magio, la quale fu oribile e crudel cosa, e non so da qual lato cominciare la crudeltà che era e modi dispiatati, che quasi a ognuno pareva che di dolore a vedere si diventavano stupefatti; e non è possibile a lingua umana a contare la oribile cosa, che ben si può dire beato a chi tanta oribiltà non vidde. E morivano quasi di subito, e infiavano sotto il ditello e l'anguinaia e favellando cadevano morti. El padre abandonava el figluolo, la moglie el marito, e l'uno fratello l'altro: e gnuno fugiva e abandonava l'uno, inperochè questo morbo s'attachava coll'alito e co' la vista pareva, e così morivano, e non si trovava chi soppellisse nè per denaro nè per amicitia, e quelli de la casa propria li portava meglio che potea a la fossa senza prete, nè uffitio alcuno, nè si sonava canpana; e in molti luoghi in Siena si fe' grandi fosse e cupe per la moltitudine de' morti, e morivano a centinaia il dì e la notte, e ognuno [si] gittava in quelle fosse e cuprivano a suolo a suolo, e così tanto che s'enpivano le dette fosse, e poi facevano più fosse.

Mortality began in Siena in May, which was a horrible and cruel thing, and I don't know where to begin with the cruelty that it was and the dispiatable ways, that almost to everyone it seemed that they became stupefied with grief at the sight; and it is not possible for human language to count the horrible thing, that one can well say blessed to those who did not see such oribilty. And they died almost at once, and infirmed under the finger and the eel, and speaking they fell dead. The father abandons his son, the wife her husband, and one brother the other: And each one fled and abandonned the other, because this disease was attacked by breath and sight, it seemed, and so they died, and there was no one to be found who would kill them either for money or for friendship, and those of their own house took them as best they could to the grave without a priest, nor any office, nor were they singing canpas; And in many places in Siena large and dark pits were made for the multitude of the dead, and they died by the hundreds day and night, and each one [was] thrown into those pits and they were buried floor to floor, and so much so that the said pits were filled in, and then they made more pits. (Translation: DeepL)

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