Love & Sex in the Time of Plague: Guido Ruggiero Book Talk

This lecture explores how Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, written during the Black Death of 1348, provides a unique window into Renaissance Florentine culture by examining love and sexual relations through an interdisciplinary lens that combines literary analysis with historical methodology; the book argues that Boccaccio's tales, which present love and sex as healing forces for survivors of the plague, should be understood within the context of Florence's emerging urban society where the 'popolo' (common people) was rising in power and challenging traditional aristocratic values, rather than being read through medieval frameworks that mischaracterize this vibrant new cultural moment.