The "Is There A Comparison Between The Black Death And COVID-19?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading an article telling about the invention of the platen press and movable type which were said to have been a "game changer" at the height of the Renaissance, since it allowed both religious and classical texts to be disseminated through the population at large.  During my high school Graphic Arts classes, I taught both the historical background as well as the mechanical background of the art of printing.  Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in the mid-1400s which gave printers the capability to print multiple copies of printed pieces which made the printing press the instrument through which the cultural revolution of the Renaissance spread through the population instead of being contained among the elite.  

The letterpress which used movable type to print documents.

The press also allowed printed pieces to be printed in languages besides Latin, which allowed common people to understand them.  Ordinary people could now access the texts containing the most important works of literature in human history through open libraries and personal collections, rather than being reliant on the interpretations of the church.  The Renaissance was a period of explosive artistic and scientific growth for Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries.  Europe was trapped for a thousand years in social and cultural mire after the collapse of the Roman Empire.  The Renaissance marked a resurgence of innovation that set the stage for advances made over the following centuries that led us to the modern world as we know it today.  Though the press and movable type were important, the Black Death helped start the era.  Many historians theorize that the devastating pandemic known as the Black Death may have helped create an environment in which social change began to flourish.  The Black Death killed between 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population which put the feudal structure on which Europe's hierarchy depended in a precarious position.  Labor became more valuable and the average individual had better economic means as well as greater social mobility.  

The city of Florence, Italy.

Before the Black Death struck, life was focused on the afterlife, while afterwards they became more focused on achieving personal betterment and well-being in life.  It was said to have been the advent of humanism.  Florence, Italy was the center of the Renaissance.  Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Sandro Botticelli were from the Tuscany region, but Florence was the key city to gaining an understanding of how the Renaissance changed the underlying institutions of Medieval Europe.  Military might wasn't the only factor with architecture and art now being important.  The great thinkers of the city began to give us the works we remember them for today.  The Renaissance wouldn't enjoy such a lofty place in history if it were not accompanied by the achievements in art and science that took place.  

Artistic achievement was reached during the Renaissance.

Artistic achievement was funded by the wealthy Catholic Church which is why we see so many religious themes in the art of the era.  The great thinkers of the era made contri- butions to the astronomical, botanical anatomical and mechanical discoveries of the Renaissance.  Conflict at times was created between the church and these indivitduals such as Galileo after his discovery that the sun was the center of the solar system, not the Earth.  The Renaissance was so important in our history and perhaps had it not been for the Black Death, it may have never happened.  Will future generations be reading much the same thing about our civilization and COVID-19?  Only time will tell.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.