ABSTRACT
In Giovanni Boccaccio's era, the plague was a mysterious threat since neither an exact cause nor a cure was known. By providing parallels between Boccaccio's text and fourteenth-century plague treatises, both Glending Olson and Marga Cottino-Jones sustain that popular medical attitudes influenced the cornice of Boccaccio's Decameron. This chapter describes the influence of Boccaccio's form of narrative prophylaxis on subsequent medical works as evidenced by their written advice for communities stricken by pestilence. Giovanni da Noto's medical training accounted for his recommendations for emotional balance and psychosomatic relations, but for the specific literary recommendations, he is likely indebted to Boccaccio's Decameron. Castore Durante offers specific and practical recommendations on how to attain the emotional balance he so passionately advocates for psychosomatic health. Towards the end of his treatise, Tommaso del Garbo elaborates on the importance of happiness and maintaining a healthy state of mind.
