Five Minute History with Ken Tentarelli
My latest book, The Blackest Time, takes place during the most horrific time in our history, the time of the Black Plague. The book is set in Florence, Italy, one of the largest cities in Europe, which lost 60% of its population during the plague. What is almost unbelievable is that the plague decimated the population in only six months.
Prophets believed God arranged the formations of planets and stars to foretell future events on Earth. Three years before the plague struck, prophets observed three bright lights close together in the night sky. They took the triple conjunction of planets, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, as an ominous sign. They didn’t know what was coming, but they expected something terrible.
Their prophecy unfolded when the plague arrived in Florence in March 1348. Everyone who contracted the deadly disease succumbed within a week. Its cause was a mystery, but whispers of fear and rumors spread like a wildfire, fueling countless theories. The most common belief was that the plague spread through bad air. Apothecary shops where perfumes were sold did a thriving business with customers who wanted the most pungent fragrances available. Perfume made from iris flowers was popular in Florence because the iris symbolized the city, but iris perfume didn’t have the strongest scent. One of the strongest scents available at that time was made from gardenia flowers, so gardenia perfume became the most requested my men and women hoping to dispel the poisonous air. The perfumes kept people from smelling bad, which was beneficial because they didn’t bathe very often, but it did nothing to combat the plague.
Doctors were baffled by cases where the plague infected all members of a family except one. They concluded it had to be the balance of bodily fluids that protected the survivors. For two millennia, since the time of Hippocrates, physicians had practiced balancing blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile to treat patients, but they soon found their customary treatments were ineffective against the plague. Despite their failures, selfless doctors worked tirelessly, exposing themselves to the disease as they tried different techniques in vain to treat the afflicted and members of their families.
People did their best to care for sick friends and relatives. To avoid contaminating themselves, they left parcels of food on their sick neighbors’ doorsteps. Though terrified of the plague, families showed incredible compassion, opening their homes to children orphaned by the plague.
Accepting the possibility that the plague was spread by bad air, city officials in Florence passed regulations to improve sanitation. They had streets washed every night; required butchers to dispose of spoiled meat promptly, and banned highly perishable fruit from being imported to the city. Those measures are credited with ending the plague, not because they purified the air, but because they eliminated the food supply of the disease-carrying rodents, thereby decreasing the rodent population.
While the plague is the backdrop of The Blackest Time, the novel’s focus is on the compassion, love, courage, and resilience of the people who coped with the tragedy. I hope readers will look beyond the plague itself and appreciate the strengths and caring of the people who supported each other during the time of the plague and see The Blackest Time as an uplifting story.
Set in the 1300s during the devastating black plague, The Blackest Time is a powerful tale of compassion, love, and the human spirit’s ability to endure immense adversity.
Gino, the central character, is a young man who leaves his family’s farm to find work in a pharmacy in Florence. His experiences show us how people coped in the most horrific time in history.
Shortly after Gino arrived in the city, two years of incessant rain destroyed crops in the countryside, leading to famine and despair in the city. Gino offers hope and help to the suffering— he secures shelter for a woman forced to leave her flooded farm, rescues a young girl orphaned by the plague, and aids others who have lost everything.
The rains had barely ended when the plague hit the city, exposing the true character of its people. While some blamed others for the devastation, the story focuses on the compassionate acts of neighbors helping each other overcome fear and suffering. Doctors bravely risk infection to care for their patients. A woman healer, wrongly accused of witchcraft and driven from the city, finds a new beginning in a village where her skills were appreciated.
Despite the hardships, love blossoms between Gino and a young woman he met at the apothecary. Together they survive, finding strength in each other and hope in a world teetering on the edge.
The Blackest Time is a testament to the strength of the human spirit in overcoming unimaginable tragedy.
Praise for The Blackest Time:
“The complexities and the helplessness of the plague is captured exquisitely in The Blackest Time.”
~ The Independent Book Review
“Tentarelli’s ability to immerse readers in medieval Florence’s sights, sounds, and struggles makes this a novel worth diving into.”
~ The Literary Titan
“The historically rigorous description of the apothecary profession, including the guild that regulates it, is impressively presented by the author, whose research is impeccable.”
~ Kirkus Reviews
“This is truly an uplifting and edifying narrative of the inherent ability of mankind to rise above all the worst trials and tribulations. I enjoyed this story immensely and highly recommend it.”
~ Readers Favorite 5 star review
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