Edition of 826 of which 125 copies are signed 1-125, 26 copies are signed A-Z as artist's proofs, three sets are signed as progressives and 12 are signed as dedication copies.
December 7, 2004
8 colors
Paper: Mohawk Superfine 80# Cover
Model: Mina Reimer
Influence: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) woodcut
Client: Self-promotion
1-125: Saint Hieronymus Press, Inc.
A-Z: Artist's
own use
Dedication copies: Mina Reimer
Progressives: One set to Mina Reimer, two sets
to Saint Hieronymus Press
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"Wretched, terrible, destructive year,
the remnants of the people alone remain."
-
Anonymous inscription carved at
Saint Mary's,
Ashwell, Hertfordshire, 1349
Francesco Petrarch (1304 - 1374) |
|
Laura de Noves (1310 - 1348), Petrarch's
ideal love, died of the Plague
Giovanni, Petrarch's son, died in 1361 of the Plague
Francesco, Petrarch's grandson, died in 1369 of the Plague |
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375) |
|
The Decameron consists of one-hundred
stories told over ten days by ten people
escaping from the Plague.
Boccaccino di Chellino, Giovanni's father, died in 1349
of the Plague
Bice del Bostichi, Giovanni Boccaccio's step-mother,
died in 1348 of the Plague
Maria de Conti d'Aquino, "Fiammetta," (1315?
- 1350?), Giovanni Boccaccio's ideal love, thought to
have died of the Plague |
The Plague took three forms: bubonic, with
a 30% to 75% mortality, death occurring within
a week; pneumonic, with a 90% to 95% mortality,
death occurring within a few days; and septicemic,
with a 100% mortality, death occurring within
hours.
Of course, people were frightened witless.
The Angel of Death had spread her wings over
Europe and a third of the population was
dead, dying or about to die, and nobody had
the faintest idea what was causing it or what
to do except flee, thereby doing Death's work
for her. Some responded with an excess of religious
fervor; some responded with an excess of carnal
indulgence; some gloomily accepted that even
if Death stalked the land, a man still had
to eat, and in order to eat he still had to
plant and harvest. The world was turned upside-down.
But life went on, willy-nilly, as it must,
and out of the ashes of the Middle Ages arose
a phoenix, a re-birth: the Renaissance.
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