Per yesterday's NFSI to clients:

‘The mortality began in Siena in May (1348). It was a cruel and horrible thing; and I do not know where to begin to tell of the cruelty and the pitiless ways. It seemed to almost everyone that one became stupefied by seeing the pain.

And it is impossible for the human tongue to recount the awful thing. And I, Agnolo di Tura, called the Fat, buried my five children with my own hands.

And there were also those who were so sparsely covered with earth that the dogs dragged them forth and devoured many bodies throughout the city. There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death.

And so many died that all believed that it was the end of the world. And no medicine or any other defense availed.’

Unimaginably awful. However:

‘And then, when the pestilence abated, all who survived gave themselves over to pleasures: monks, priests, nuns, and lay men and women all enjoyed themselves, and none worried about spending and gambling.

And everyone thought himself rich because he had escaped and regained the world, and no one knew how to allow himself to do nothing’.

Source:

Agnolo Di Tura, 'The Plague in Siena: An Italian Chronicle'. Trans. William M. Bowsky. Cronica Maggiore. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971