JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
[Image of a “plague doctor” trying to protect himself from the disease with long robes and a mask.]
Ordinances For Sanitation In A Time Of Mortality
Pistoria is a town about 40km northwest of Florence, and was visited by plague a number of times between the 13th and 18th centuries. In this instance, below, in the plague season of 1347/8, the governance of the city issued a 23-point, nine-page proclamation, trying to protect the citizens from the vast threat that would cost the lives of a quarter of the residents of the town. The text of the document treated the matter of plague at all levels, from an attempt at scientific treatment to regulations about how a person could be allowed back into Pistoria after visiting a plague area.