The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) - Deadly Epidemic
In the 1300s the world was struck by a deadly disease called the Black Death. It was one of the worst recorded disasters in history. Over one-third of the population of Europe died.
Also known as the plague, the disease is thought to have originated in Central Asia and it swept across Europe in the late 1340s. The terrible disease caused not only massive numbers of deaths, but also caused many minority groups to be blamed and persecuted for "causing" the black death.
The Black Death (video)
The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time
The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time (P.S.)
Amazon Price: $10.92 (as of 12/05/2008)
A book chronicling one of the worst human disasters in recorded history really has no business being entertaining. But John Kelly's The Great Mortality is a page-turner despite its grim subject matter and graphic detail.
Credit Kelly's animated prose and uncanny ability to drop his reader smack in the middle of the 14th century, as a heretofore unknown menace stalks Eurasia from "from the China Sea to the sleepy fishing villages of coastal Portugal [producing] suffering and death on a scale that, even after two world wars and twenty-seven million AIDS deaths worldwide, remains astonishing."
Take Kelly's vivid description of London in the fall of 1348: "A nighttime walk across Medieval London would probably take only twenty minutes or so, but traversing the daytime city was a different matter.... Imagine a shopping mall where everyone shouts, no one washes, front teeth are uncommon and the shopping music is provided by the slaughterhouse up the road."
Equivalent of a nuclear war!
"The Black death was the fourteenth century's equivalent of a nuclear war. It wiped out one-third of Europe's population, taking millions of lives."
-- Norman F. Cantor
Websites on the Black Death and the Plague
- The Plague
- An interesting essay with pictures on the Black Death and other occurences of the Plague over the centuries.
- The Black Death: Bubonic Plague
- A short history of the Black Death.
- Medieval World - Black Death
- "The critical fact of the impact of the Black Death was that England from 1400 was half empty..."
- Great Plague of London, 1664-65
- "The total number of deaths from in that year, according to the bills of mortality was 68,596, in a population estimated at 460,000..."
- The Black Death, 1347-1350
- "Culprit: Oriental Rat Flea... Dead littered the streets everywhere. Cattle and livestock roamed the country attended. Brother deserted brother..."
Plague Victims Being Blessed by a Priest
Black Death (article)
The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 1700s. During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe. On its return in 1603, the plague killed 38,000 Londoners. Other notable 17th century outbreaks were the Italian Plague of 1629-1631 , the Great Plague of Seville (1647-1652), the Great Plague of London (1665-1666), the Great Plague of Vienna (1679). There is some controversy over the identity of the disease, but in its virulent form, after the Great Plague of Marseille in 1720-1722 and the 1771 plague in Moscow it seems to have disappeared from Europe in the 19th century.
The 14th century eruption of the Black Death had a drastic effect on Europe's population, irrevocably changing Europe's social structure. It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church , and resulted in widespread persecution of minorities such as Jews , foreigners, beggars, and lepers . The uncertainty of daily survival created a general mood of morbidity , influencing people to "live for the moment", as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353).
Source: Wapedia
The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague (by Johannes Nohl)
The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague
Amazon Price: $16.15 (as of 12/05/2008)
Johannes Nohl wrote and compiled an interesting work entitled "The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague," which revealed eye-opening contemporary accounts of the Black Death during the Medieval Europe. With roughly 270 pages and twelve chapters, this book gives one a new and shocking perspective on the history of the Black Death: the reactions of the people to the plague.
The Black Death was one of the worst disasters in the history of humankind to which it killed off the third of the whole population, beginning in the year of 1348. And, this book brought forth the personal experiences and official documents to give the reader to deeply understand what the people of that ill-fated era were experiencing. Nohl's work is rather unique because of its degree to the aspects of historical, sociological, and geographical nature.
The book begins with the aspects of the plague, including the victims and the deaths, to the causes of the plague, to which some believed it to be of a divine origin or other forms of superstitions or beforehanded seen "fateful comets." Then, the author goes on to bring to light of the medical profession and its role during the plague, the detailed accounts that might prevent the plague, the precaution measurements by the Church and the governments, the role of the Church, and moral collapse and other elements. And, the rest of the book deals with the issue of persecutions of the Jews and their role, the issue of sexuality and the appearance of respectability where it "had disappeared after the terror of the Black Death had swept away not only all law courts and police, but had destroyed the last conventions of decency" (p. 207). Finally, the discussion of the role of flagellants and the personal accounts surrounding them during the plague, and then the author finally wrapped up the book with a brief aftermath of the plague where the "joy" returned.
Personally, I found this book to be quite an eye-opening and shocking to which I felt it was very important for one to read the contemporary detailed accounts, both officially and intimately, from the people who lived through or died in the Black Death. When one read the history about the Black Death, a very little can be understood about the magnitude or the impact of the plague on the people until one personally experience the detailed graphic accounts from the people who lived and died during the deadly plague.
I believe this book to be one of the most important works for the study of the Black Death because it surely brings the powerful lessons on how medieval people reacted to the plague and how the few survived such a worst disaster.
Black Death: Influence on Culture and Religion
The Black Death: Influence on Culture and Religion
This 10 minute video blog explores the impact of the Black Death in Europe in the 1300s on culture and religion. A companion transript is also available at djdoylemd.googlepages.com
Runtime: 9:54
2089 views
10 Comments:
More Books on the Black Death and the Plague
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made
Amazon Price: $11.86 (as of 12/05/2008)
The Black Death and the Transformation of the West (European history series)
Amazon Price: $14.40 (as of 12/05/2008)
The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe
Amazon Price: $18.95 (as of 12/05/2008)
The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)
Amazon Price: $14.17 (as of 12/05/2008)
Black Death Poster
Latest News on Black Death and Similar Epidemics
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SemperFidelis wrote...
Yikes! The black death is scary!
Blessed by a Squid Angel today! :)
Colleen ~ www.squidoo.com/squid-angel
Posted August 06, 2008
poddys wrote...
A good start to a nice lens. 5***** Whenever I think about the Black Death though, I think either about the opening sections of Monty Python and The Holy Grail ("Bring Out Your Dead"), or Islington in London, where I lived in the late 1970's and had to walk past what was a plaque burial pit every day. Still never built on and quite creepy.
Posted July 24, 2008
LeslieBrenner wrote...
Good start! PBS did a special on the Plague, Secrets of the Dead, which you might want to add. The Plague followed trade routes. The bacterium responsible, Yersinia pestis, can also turn into pneumonic plague, which is spread person to person through the air and is almost always lethal as well. After successive waves of the disease, a gene mutated in some people providing them immunity.
But what's really interesting is that there is a connection between the plague immunity gene and resistance to HIV. The PBS show goes into it.
Posted May 03, 2008
