Monthly Archives: July 2013

We know a great deal about the 14th century plague because paper had been invented and in many places, especially around the Mediterranean, was widely available. People wrote letters and copyists made textbooks, but there was so much paper that … Continue reading →

Because the plague had such a low rate of recovery and high speed of infection, it disrupted towns and cites more than past epidemics. Cities varied in how well they coped. Probably the best-organized city in Europe was Venice. Venice, … Continue reading →

The plague’s visitation in each place lasted for about a year; the first cities struck down were starting to see no new cases, a year later. But it took a full three years for the disease to work its way … Continue reading →

Frankly, they didn’t know what to do. First, they didn’t know that a historic plague was starting; it could have been a smaller epidemic of the sort that passed through every few years. So they began by not altering their … Continue reading →

There’s no special reason why the plague that began in 1347 is called the Black Death. It wasn’t called so at the time; the nickname seems to have begun several centuries later, perhaps as a mistranslation. When survivors looked back … Continue reading →

Plagues were different from other infectious diseases. A plague was an epidemic of a new lethal disease to which nobody had any immunity. The rate of transmission was rapid enough that people who did not have symptoms yet carried it … Continue reading →

I’m going to start another series, this one on how the plague changed Europe. I’ll start by talking about ordinary sickness and medicine, then introduce how the plague was different. Then I’ll look at aspects of society before and after … Continue reading →