The Black
Death,
1348
Death
The Plague occurred in 3 Forms
•
PNEUMONIC PHASE
• Attacked the Lungs
• Caused fierce coughing & sneezing fits
• Chest pain, Bloody sputum
SEPTICEMIC PHASE
•
•
•
•
Rarest and Deadliest
Traveled thru bloodstream
Black spots beneath skin
Victims choked on own blood, Excruciating Pain!
BUBONIC PHASE
•
•
•
•
•
Most Common
Egg-sized swellings (buboes)
Neck, armpits, groin (dark blisters)
Headaches, Weakness, Nausea/Vomiting
Severe Fever and Delirium
The Whirligig was
not that bad of a
torture. It just spun
the victim around in
circles until he
puked, mostly all
over himself.
Myth or Fact?
(Song)
Ring around the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!
DEPICTION OF THE PLUBONIC PLAGUE
WHY?
• Ignorance Surrounded Cause and Cure
• Europeans were Frantic
Blames
• Alignment of Planets
• Infected Clothing, Humans
• God’s Wrath aimed at Sin
• Jews
Cures/Remedies
• Pomanders
• Mixture of Molasses & Chopped Snake
• Repentance
• Flagellants
The Flagellant Brahren
Singing hymns and sobbing, the men
beat themselves with scourges studded
with iron spikes. Blood gushes from their
many wounds, and the spikes embed
themselves in the torn flesh. The ritual is
performed in public twice each day.
Such exhibitions are highly influential.
The establishment may focus their
attacks on church corruption and their
promotion of a wave of savage antiSemitism. but the masses worship the
flagellants as living martyrs. Their deeds
are to be admired and their commands
to be carried out.
Many Followers massacred Jews
believing they had poisoned society.
The burning of Jews in 1349 (from a European chronicle written on the Black
Death between 1349 and 1352)
Black Death
• Carried by Ships throughout Europe
• Rats infested the goods on board
Origins
• Originated in Mongolia’s Gobi desert
• Moved along the Silk Road to Black Sea
• Bacteria carried by fleas, lived on black rats
• Major trade/commercial cities were good hosts
• Sicily in 1347, England 1348, culminating in Russia 1352
• Unstoppable Force
“Victims ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."
Her keyser euch hilft nicht das swert
Czeptir vnd crone sint hy nicht wert
Ich habe euch bey der hand genomen
Ir must an meynen reyen komen
Emperor, your sword won’t help you out
Sceptre and crown are worthless here
I’ve taken you by the hand
For you must come to my dance
At the bottom end of the Totentanz Death calls e.g. the
peasant to dance and he answers:
Ich habe gehabt [vil arbeit gross]
Der sweis mir du[rch die haut floss]
Noch wolde ich ger[n dem tod empfliehen]
Zo habe ich des glu[cks nit hie]
I had to work very much and very hard
The sweat was running down my skin
I’d like to escape death nontheless
But here I won’t have any luck
Michael Wolgemut
Effect on European Civilization
DISASTER STRIKES
Estimated population of
Europe from 1000 to
1352.
•1000 38 million
•1100 48 million
•1200 59 million
•1300 70 million
•1347 75 million
•1352 50 million
25 million people
died in just under
five years between
1347 and 1352.
THE TRUE CAUSE OF THE PLAGUE
• The Swiss scientist Alexandre Yersin discovered the true cause of plague.
• The bubonic plague, an infectious disease, are caused by microbes that
invade the human body.
• The microbes that cause the plague are a type of bacteria known as the
Yersinia pestis.
• The bubonic plague, however, does not start in humans.
• Instead it infects only rats and cannot be spread directly from rats to
humans.
• Fleas, which live on the rats for food, abandon the rat when the rat dies.
• If these fleas then find a human the, Yersinia pestis is injected into the
bloodstream.
•Then the disease can spread from man to man.
How it was Transmitted
Yersinia pestis seen at 2000x magnification. This
bacterium, carried and spread by fleas, is the cause of the
various forms of the disease plague
Flea which
carries the
yersinia pestis
History of Plague
• Justinian’s Plague (541-542) killed ¼ pop. of Mediterranean
• 6th & 8th C. breakouts
• 16th, 17th, 18th C. Pandemics
Italian, London, Vienna, Marseilles, Russia
• 3rd Pandemic (Asian Plague) – 19th, 20th C.
~15 million dead (India, China, Russia)
• Biological Weapon (Japanese, WWII)
Looked at Medieval Styles of Catapulting Infected Bodies into Castles
Released Infected Fleas in China, Manchuria
Studied Live Subject, Dissecting
WhAt NeXt?
SYMPTOMS
~painful swellings called buboes which
commonly appeared in armpits and groin
area
~dark blisters and purple blotches appeared
on skin
~fever
~severe headaches
~increasing weakness