Secondary sourcePainting

The Plague of Florence in 1348

Luigi Sabatelli

An etching by Luigi Sabatelli illustrating Boccaccio's account of the 1348 plague in Florence, showing bodies in a city square.

This etching depicts the Black Death's devastation in Florence as described by Boccaccio, a contemporary witness.

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Etching titled 'La Peste di Firenze, Dal Boccaccio Descritta' showing plague victims in a city square. Naked and draped corpses lie on the ground in the foreground while hooded monks and robed figures stand at left. A procession with a crucifix banner rises at center, and people dig in a pit near a stone archway on the right, with a tower visible in the distance. — Luigi Sabatelli, The Plague of Florence in 1348, after Boccaccio's Decameron.

About this source

What it is

This is an etching made by the artist Luigi Sabatelli, based on Giovanni Boccaccio's description of the plague that struck Florence in 1348 in his book the Decameron. It shows a city square filled with the dead and dying, monks in procession, and gravediggers at work.

Why it matters

The image was made long after the Black Death itself, but it helps later generations picture the disaster described by Boccaccio, who lived through the plague and wrote one of the most famous accounts of it. It shows how artists used eyewitness-style writing to imagine and recreate historic suffering.

Look closer

What details in the etching suggest fear, grief, or religious response to the plague?
Why might an artist centuries later choose to illustrate Boccaccio's words rather than invent a new scene?
What does the image leave out about daily life during the plague?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of The Black Death on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.