The Plague of Florence in 1348

What it is

This is a print by the Italian artist Luigi Sabatelli, titled The Plague of Florence in 1348. Its lettering says it illustrates the plague as described in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, and it is dedicated to the Marchese Pier Roberto Capponi. The Wellcome Collection holds it. The image available here shows only the reverse of the sheet, and no printed picture is visible on it.

Why it matters

Boccaccio's Decameron gives one of the best-known written accounts of the 1348 plague in Florence. Sabatelli made this etching as a later artist's view of that account, so it shows how an artist in a later period pictured the Black Death. It reminds students that many images of the plague were made long after the events they show.

Look closer

• What does the reverse of the sheet show about how this print was kept and handled?
• How might this later artist's picture differ from Boccaccio's own written account?
• What might a later artist leave out when he pictures a past disaster?