| Throughout history, when faced with viral doom and gloom, people have turned to tales of lust and deceit. “It started in the East,” where it “killed an innumerable quantity of people,” before gradually extending “its miserable length over the West. Against this plague all human wisdom and foresight were in vain.” Orders were given “to cleanse the city of filth, the entry of any sick person was forbidden, [and] much advice was given for keeping healthy.… And yet, in the beginning of the spring of the year mentioned, its horrible results began to appear.” This excerpt does not describe the westward spread of COVID-19, aka coronavirus, from China to Italy and beyond in recent weeks. It’s from the first few pages of The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio, in 1353. The Decameron, which is often compared to The Canterbury Tales, though the former was written decades earlier, is primarily remembered for its ribald tales of lust and deceit. Few recall that the book is set against the backdrop of the havoc caused by the bubonic plague that ravaged Florence in 1348. | 
