In the name of Christ, Amen. July 29, 1348. Phylippa, daughter of the late Aradus, wife of Philippinus Laurentii butcher and citizen of the parish of San Felice, healthy in mind and senses, but sick in body, declares her will thus. For the benefit of her soul, she leave three lire to don Johannes, chaplain of the parish church of San Felice, for masses for his necessities. She leaves 20 lire to her servant, Sante daughter of the late Senitius from the village of Monte Marino. She leaves 40 solidi to Nicolaus and Bencevenis, sons of Francischinus de Medicis, who was married to her deceased daughter Agnexia, which money they can have after her husband, Philippinus, has died. She leaves 40 lire to her grand-daughters Zoleta and Chola, daughters of her son-in-law Francischinus, which money they can have after her husband has died. For all of her goods and property, moveable and immoveable, and all her rights and actions, both now and in the future, she institutes as universal heir, her husband, Phylippinus. She leaves her daughter, Chadiana, 25 lire, which she can have after the death of her father, ordering Chadiana and the grandchildren Nicolaus and his siblings to be quiet and content with the legacies. She declares that this is her last will and cancels and invalidates any previous testament or codicil. Enacted in the testator's house in the parish of San Felice, in the presence of the following witnesses: don Johannes, parish priest of San Felice, Blaxius Thomaxini of San Felce, Nasimbene Petri, shoemaker of San Felice, Bonjohannes Gregorii of San Felice, Azzolinus Petri of San Felice, Franciscus Jacobi, shoemaker of San Nicolo del Borgo di San Felice, Johannes Johannis de Spilamberti, and Andreuccio Oradei de Donzellis of San Felice. Written by the notary, Martinus Johannis de Pizoy. The notary and testator went to the Office of the Memoriali to register the testament on that day.

In the name of Christ, Amen. July 23, 1348. Ursollina, daughter of the late Thomas Ursii and widow of the late Figliocarius, known as Carino, parchment maker in the parish of San Biagio, healthy in mind and intellect, but sick in body, declares her will thus. She leaves five lire for the benefit of her soul to be distributed by her heirs as they deem most useful for her soul, of which five lire, five solidi [20 solidi equaled one lira] are to go to Don Gerardus, her parish priest, and the rest are to be distributed as she said above. She leaves 20 lire for her daughter, Ysabeta, daughter of the late Figliocarius known as Carino, demanding that she be quiet and content with this sum. For all of her goods and property, moveable and immovable, and all her rights and actions, both now and in the future, she institutes as universal heirs, her three sons, Thomas, Johannes, and Bernardus, sons of the late Figliocarius. She declares that this is her last will and cancels and invalidates any previous testament or codicil. Enacted in the testator's house in the parish of San Biagio, in the presence of the following witnesses: Don Gerardus, parish priest of San Biagio, Petrobellus, son of the late Brother Ugollini, draper of San Biagio [he is the brother of her daughter's husband, Mengorius], Johannes son of the late Petrus, parchment maker of San Biagio, Ser Bondus son of the late Guidone, shoemaker of San Biagio, Jacobus son of the late Picinus, parchment maker of San Biagio, Petrus son of the late Rummollus, parchment maker of San Biagio, Marcus son of the late Dominicus, baker of San Biagio, and Symone son of the late Gerardus, furrier of San Biagio. Written by the notary Johannes Laurentii Stephani. The notary and witness, Petrobellus, designated as proctor for the ill testator, went to the Office of the Memoriali, on that day to register the testament.

In the name of Christ, Amen. July 8, 1348. Figliocharius, known as Carinus, son of the late Brother Donisdei, parchment maker living in the parish of San Biagio of Bologna, healthy in mind and intellect, but sick in body, declares his will thus. He leaves five lire for the benefit of his soul to be distributed by his heirs as would seem to them best and most useful for his soul. Of these five lire, five solidi [20 solidi equaled one lira] should go to Don Gerardus, chaplain of the parish church of San Biagio, for masses for his soul. He leaves 20 solidi for his two nieces Mina and Cicillia. He returns to his wife her dowry of 130 lire [a modest dowry, typical of the artisan class] and gives her 20 lire as well as his bed and all the linen and woolen clothes that she had during her life and at the time of his death. He grants his wife usufruct [the right to use but not own] all of his goods as long as she lives in the home with their children, remains a widow, and does not ask for her dowry and the aforesaid legacies [i.e., the 20 lire, bed and clothing]. He leaves to his daughter, Isabeta, wife of Mengorius, son of the late Brother Ugollini of the parish of San Biagio, all that he had arranged as her dowry for her marriage to Mengorius. As a blessing [nomine benedictionis], he also leaves her 20 solidi. For all of his goods and property, moveable and immovable, and all his rights and actions, both now and in the future, he institutes as universal heirs, his three sons, Thomas, Johannes, and Bernardus. He declares that this is his last will and cancels and invalidates any previous testament or codicil. Enacted in the testator's house in the parish of San Biagio, in the presence of the following witnesses: Don Gerardus, parish priest of San Biagio, Johannes son of the late Albertinus, draper of San Biagio, Petrus son of the late Johannes, parchment maker of San Biagio, Paulus son of the late Ugollinus, parchment maker of San Biagio, Bertone son of the late Jacobus, armorer of San Biagio, Guidone son of the late Simone, parchment maker of San Biagio, Tomas son of the late Brother Albertus, parchment maker of San Biagio, Bonacosa son of the late Leyus, draper of San Biagio, and Benvenutus son of the late Gerardinus, baker of San Biagio. Written by the notary, Johannes Laurentii Stephanii. The notary and Johannes Albertini, designated as proctor for the sick testator, went to the Office of the Memoriali on that day to register the testament.

Selections from the Health Ordinances of Pistoia [2 May, 1348]

No one, whether from Pistoia or elsewhere, shall dare or presume to bring or fetch to Pistoia, whether in person or by an agent, any old linen or woolen clothes, for male or female clothing or for bedspreads; penalty 200 pence, and the cloth to be burnt in the public piazza of Pistoia by the official who discovered it. However it shall be lawful for citizens of Pistoia travelling within Pistoia and its territories to take linen and woolen cloths with them for their own use or wear, provided that they are in a pack or fardle weighing 30 lb. or less.

The bodies of the dead shall not be removed from the place of death until they have been enclosed in a wooden box, and the lid of planks nailed down so that no stench can escape, and covered with no more than one pall, coverlet or cloth; penalty 50 pence to be paid by the heirs of the deceased or, if there are no heirs, by the nearest kinsmen in the male line.

To avoid the foil stench which comes from dead bodies each grave shall be dug two and a half arms length deep, as this is reckoned in Pistoia; penalty 10 pence from anyone digging or ordering the digging of a grave which infringes the statute.

So that the living are not made ill by rotten and corrupt food, no butcher or retailer of meat shall dare or presume to hang up meat, or keep and sell meat up in their storehouse or over their counter [i.e. whole carcasses cannot be displayed, only joints of meat]; penalty 10d.

1. Chronicle of Marco Battagli of Rimini
The chronicler of Rimini, from the northeastern coastal region, wrote that "father fled his son once he became sick, brother avoided brother, wife her husband, and thus the healthy fled from the ill."

[Original in Latin]
pater postea infirmum filium evitabat, frater fratrem, uxor virum, et sic de singulis sani infirmos penitus evitabant.

2. Chronicle of Guglielmo Cortusi of Padua
Guglielmo Cortusi wrote in his city chronicle of Padua that during the plague "wife fled the embrace of a dear husband, the father that of a son, and the brother that of a brother."

[Original in Latin]
uxor fugiebat amplexum cari viri, pater filii, frater fratris.

3. Tuscan Chronicle Account
The Storie Pistoresi announce that in Tuscany and especially in Pisa, "father abandoned son, children abandoned their mother and father, and one brother abandoned the other."

[Original in Italian]
lo padre abbandonava li figliuoli, e' figliuoli lo padre e la madre, e l'uno fratello l'altro.

4. Chronicle of Agnolo di Tura del Grasso
The Sienese chronicler, Agnolo di Tura del Grasso, left a poignant account of the plague. "It is not possible," he says "to describe this horrible thing with human speech." After noting truncated burial practices, without priest, appropriate liturgy or bells, he discusses the subject of child abandonment with the familiar words "father abandoned child, wife her husband, and one brother the other." He, himself, did not abandon his children for he tells us that he buried his five children with his own hands.

[Original in Italian]
El padre abbandonava el figluolo, la moglie el marito, e l'uno fratello l'altro.

It was not merely a question of one citizen avoiding another, and of people almost invariably neglecting their neighbours and rarely or never visiting their relatives, addressing them only from a distance; this scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands. But even worse, and almost incredible was the fact that fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children, as though they did not belong to them.

[Original in Italian]
E lasciamo stare che l'uno cittadino l'altro schifasse e quasi niuno vicino avesse dell'altro cura e i parenti insieme rade volte o non mai si visitassero e di lontano: era con sí fatto spavento questa tribulazione entrata ne' petti degli uomini e delle donne, che l'un fratello l'altro abbandonava e il zio il nepote e la sorella il fratello e spesse volte la donna il suo marito; e, che maggior cosa è e quasi non credibile, li padri e lemadri i figliuoli, quasi loro non fossero, di visitare e di servire schifavano.

CASE XVI.—Sarah Nelmes, a dairymaid at a farmer's near this place, was infected with the cow-pox from her master's cows in May, 1796. She received the infection on a part of her hand which had been previously in a slight degree injured by a scratch from a thorn. A large pustulous sore and the usual symptoms accompanying the disease were produced in consequence. The pustule was so expressive of the true character of the cow-pox, as it commonly appears upon the hand, that I have given a representation of it in the annexed plate. [In original.] The two small pustules on the wrists arose also from the application of the virus to some minute abrasions of the cuticle, but the livid tint, if they ever had any, was not conspicuous at the time I saw the patient. The pustule on the forefinger shews the disease in an earlier stage. It did not actually appear on the hand of this young woman, but was taken from that of another, and is annexed for the purpose of representing the malady after it has newly appeared.

41

CASE XVII.—The more accurately to observe the progress of the infection I selected a healthy boy, about eight years old, for the purpose of inoculation for the cow-pox. The matter was taken from a sore on the hand of a dairymaid, 10 who was infected by her master's cows, and it was inserted, on the 14th of May, 1796, into the arm of the boy by means of two superficial incisions, barely penetrating the cutis, each about half an inch long.

42

On the seventh day he complained of uneasiness in the axilla, and on the ninth he became a little chilly, lost his appetite, and had a slight headache. During the whole of this day he was perceptibly indisposed, and spent the night with some degree of restlessness, but on the day following he was perfectly well.

43

The appearance of the incisions in their progress to a state of maturation were much the same as when produced in a similar manner by variolous matter. The only difference which I perceived was in the state of the limpid fluid arising from the action of the virus, which assumed rather a darker hue, and in that of the efflorescence spreading round the incisions, which had more of an erysipelatous look than we commonly perceive when variolous matter has been made use of in the same manner; but the whole died away (leaving on the inoculated parts scabs and subsequent eschars) without giving me or my patient the least trouble.

44

In order to ascertain whether the boy, after feeling so slight an affection of the system from the cow-pox virus, was secure from the contagion of the smallpox, he was inoculated the 1st of July following with variolous matter, immediately taken from a pustule. Several slight punctures and incisions were made on both his arms, and the matter was carefully inserted, but no disease followed. The same appearances were observable on the arms as we commonly see when a patient has had variolous matter applied, after having either the cow-pox or smallpox. Several months afterwards he was again inoculated with variolous matter, but no sensible effect was produced on the constitution.CASE XVIII.—John Baker, a child of five years old, was inoculated March 16, 1798, with matter taken from a pustule on the hand of Thomas Virgoe, one of the servants who had been infected from the mare's heels. He became ill on the sixth day with symptoms similar to those excited by cow-pox matter. On the eighth day he was free from indisposition.

48

There was some variation in the appearance of the pustule on the arm. Although it somewhat resembled a smallpox pustule, yet its similitude was not so conspicuous as when excited by matter from the nipple of the cow, or when the matter has passed from thence through the medium of the human subject.

49

This experiment was made to ascertain the progress and subsequent effects of the disease when thus propagated. We have seen that the virus from the horse, when it proves infectious to the human subject, is not to be relied upon as rendering the system secure from variolous infection, but that the matter produced by it upon the nipple of the cow is perfectly so. Whether its passing from the horse through the human constitution, as in the present instance, will produce a similar effect, remains to be decided. This would now have been effected, but the boy was rendered unfit for inoculation from having felt the effects of a contagious fever in a workhouse soon after this experiment was made.

50

CASE XIX.—William Summers, a child of five years and a half old, was inoculated the same day with Baker, with matter taken from the nipples of one of the infected cows, at the farm alluded to. He became indisposed on the sixth day, vomited once, and felt the usual slight symptoms till the eighth day, when he appeared perfectly well. The progress of the pustule, formed by the infection of the virus, was similar to that noticed in Case XVII, with this exception, its being free from the livid tint observed in that instance.

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CASE XX.—From William Summers the disease was transferred to William Pead, a boy of eight years old, who was inoculated March 28th. On the sixth day he complained of pain in the axilla, and on the seventh was affected with the common symptoms of a patient sickening with the smallpox from inoculation, which did not terminate till the third day after the seizure. So perfect was the similarity to the variolous fever that I was induced to examine the skin, conceiving there might have been some eruptions, but none appeared. The efflorescent blush around the part punctured in the boy's arm was so truly characteristic of that which appears on variolous inoculation that I have given a representation of it. [In original.] The drawing was made when the pustule was beginning to die away and the areola retiring from the centre.

June 1734

Elizabeth Turner, of Clerkenwell, was indicted for the murder of her male bastard infant, by strangling it with both her hands, April 12.

Eleanor Turnly. The prisoner was servant to Mrs Windsor, a pastry-cook, in St. John's Lane. I and Margaret Goldsmith, came to lodge there but a little before Ladyday [25 March, the beginning of the year on the old calendar], and then we observed the prisoner looked big, and at Easter, she looked very lank. We suspected she had been delivered, though she appeared publicly every day. And we had never heard her cry out, but then we could not think what was become of the child. In short, we thought the family was all alike, or things could not be kept so private. We watched and harkened all as ever we could. Once while. . . we fancied the child might be at nurse in the garret [attic], because they were often whipping up and down stairs. But when we could find nothing, we concluded it was baked in the oven. At last Mrs. Goldsmith, going into the cellar, came up, and told me and her husband, she had seen a wig-box below, and smelled something. He went down, and came up again, like a dead man, and said, he put his hand in the box, and felt a child, but was so surprised that he did not take it out. We consulted what to do, and, says I, as they have kept this thing in hugger-mugger [secret], we won't let 'em know the child is found before we fetch for a constable [policeman]. So Mr. Goldsmith fetched a constable and watch [man who watched the streets to prevent crimes], and they brought the child up, and it was all mouldy. The prisoner, at first, denied she had had a child; but in a little time owned it was her's.

Juryman. You seemed very diligent in watching the prisoner. Did you ever tax [question] her with being with child, before the child was found.

Turnly. No, I never spoke a word to her about it, for I could not bear the sight of the creature.

Margaret and Thomas Goldsmith, deposed to the same effect.

Elizabeth Windsor. The prisoner never told me she was with child, but she said she had been ill, and had had a great deal of water come from her, and then she was much better. When the child was first found, she denied it, but owned it afterwards.

Dinah Beaven. The child was crowded in the box and putrefied. It was at the full time. I could discern no mark of violence. [There] was a small wound on the head; but I have known such a thing happen to an honest woman's child; when it fell from her for want of assistance.

Sarah Hawkey. When the prisoner was brought to Newgate, some of the other prisoners took her coat, for garnish money. And they found these baby things, sewed up in her coat. Here's a shirt, a cap, a stay [a tie for clothing?], a forehead-cloth, and a biggin [a tight fitting cap].

The jury acquitted her.