What A 14th-Century Novel Teaches Us About Social Distancing

Rebecca Messbarger is a cultural historian of medicine, as well as a professor of Italian at Washington University. There, she teaches a class called Disease, Madness and Death — Italian Style. She begins the course by discussing the classic Italian novel “The Decameron.” Written in 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio’s work is framed by a story of medieval social distancing during the bubonic plague. Messbarger never imagined that it would be so relevant to today’s time. She joins host Sarah Fenske to talk about social distancing — both how it provided the framing device for “The Decameron" and was also at the root of St. Louis health commissioner Max Starkloff’s approach to the 1918 influenza pandemic.