Francesco Petrarca

Among the people of Europe, the Black Death spread a deep fear—a fear so great that it overcame nearly all ties of loyalty to family, friends, and nation. It brought an agonizing questioning of social norms, but it also inspired the poets and chroniclers of the time to set down very moving expressions of their experiences and emotions.

In the flowery poetic language of the following letter to a companion nicknamed Socrates, the Italian writer Francesco Petrarca, known commonly as Petrarch, expresses the anguished soul searching of those who experienced the Black Death. Petrarch, who survived the plague in the city of Parma, had lost not only family and friends but had also suffered the death of Laura. This mysterious woman, whom he had long admired from afar and who inspired his poetry and other writings...