In this extremity of our city's suffering and tribulation the revered authority of laws… — Giovanni Boccaccio
In this extremity of our city's suffering and tribulation the revered authority of laws, human and divine, was abased and all but totally dissolved, for lack of those who should have administered and enforced them, most of whom, like the rest of the citizens, were either dead or sick, or so hard pressed for servants that they were unable to execute any office; whereby every man was free to do what was right in his own eyes.
E in tanta afflizione e miseria della nostra città era la reverenda autorità delle leggi, così divine come umane, quasi caduta e dissoluta tutta per li ministri e esecutori di quelle, li quali, sì come gli altri uomini, erano tutti o morti o infermi o sì di famigli rimasi stremi, che uficio alcuno non potean fare; per la qual cosa era a ciascun licito quanto a grado gli era d’adoperare.
