Source #1 Excerpt from Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron (c. 1351)
Context: The author, Giovanni Boccaccio was a writer who witnessed the Black Death in Florence, Italy.
"Some people were of the opinion that abstaining from excess luxuries and living simple lives considerably reduced the risk of infection, and formed groups isolated from everyone else - withdrawn to where there were no sick persons, consuming modest quantities of delicate food and drink....
Some did not shut themselves in, but went about, holding a posy of flowers or fragrant herbs, which they frequently smelled, thinking it good to comfort the brain with such odours....
Some people thought the most effective remedy for the plague was to run away from it - abandoning their city, homes, relatives, and estates to head for the countryside. Of the people who held these various opinions, not all of them died. Nor, however, did they all survive."