The Black Death
1347 and on - - -
The Black Death - Structure
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Introduction
Forms of Disease and
Transmission
Path of the Plague
Recurrences
Efforts to stop the Plague
Quotes on the Black Death
Consequences:
Economic
Social and Psychological
Religious
Music and Art
Introduction
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Epidemic Disease
Divider betw. Central
and late Middle Ages
Illustration
From the
Toggenburg
Bible, 1411
3 Forms of the Disease
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Bubonic Plague.
painful lymph node swellings, buboes
Septicemic Plague.
also called “blood poisoning”, attacked the
blood system
Pneumonic Plague.
attacked the respiratory system
The Bubonic Plague
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Painful lymph node
swelling, called buboes
In groins and armpits
Oozing pus and blood
Damage to the skin and
underlying tissue
Dark blotches = acral
necrosis  Black
Death!
The
Bubonic
Plague
A plague victim reveals
the telltale buboe on
his leg. From a 14th
Century illumination.
Symptoms of the bubonic
Plague
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Swellings “egg  apple”
Fever of 101-105 degrees F
Headaches and Aching joints
Nausea and vomiting (of blood)
General feeling of malaise
Swellings expanding until they burst  death following soon after
Whole process: 3-5 days
NB: People who didn’t develop swellings invariably died. People
with swellings might have a chance.
 Mortality Rate: 30-75 %
 If 40% of population was getting infected, and
80% of them died = mortality rate of 32%
The Pneumonic Plague
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Second most commonly seen form of the
Black Death
The Pneumonic Plague
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Infected the lungs.
Symptoms:
Slimy sputum tinted with blood
(Sputum = saliva mixed with mucus excreted
from the respiratory system)
Sputum became free flowing
1-7 days for symptoms to appear
 Mortality
Rate : 90-95%
The Pneumonic Plague
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Airborne transmission –
added to its danger!
Through bacteria in
droplets of saliva
coughed up by sick
persons
Inhaled by bystanders
New infection starts
directly in the lungs or
throat.
The Septicemic Plague
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Attacked the
blood system
(Blood Poisoning)
Fevers
Skin turns deep
shades of purple
due to DIC
(disseminated
intravascular
coagulation)
The Septicemic Plague
In its most deadly form, DIC causes a
victim’s skin to turn dark purple, almost
black = The Black Death.
 Victims died the same day symptoms
appeared.
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Mortality Rate: close to 100%.
No treatment even today
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Transmission of the Bubonic
and Septicemic Plague
Direct contact with a Flea
The Bacteria (Yersinia
pestis) carried by rodents
Fleas infest animals,
primarily rats
Then move to human
hosts
The oriental rat flea,
Xenopsylla cheopis
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The flea drinks rat’s
blood
The bacteria
multiplies inside the
flea
The flea’s stomach is
blocked
The flea is very
hungry
The flea voraciously
bites a host = a
human
The flea is unable to
satisfy its hunger
The flea continues to
feed
Infected blood
carrying the plague
bacteria is flowing into
the human’s wound
The rat dies
The flea dies of
starvation
The human dies
The Rat Flea
The Path of the Plague
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Erupted in Gobi
Desert, late 1320’s
Epidemic in Europe
in 6th century but
dormant since then
Reached the shores
of Italy in 1348
Spread in every
direction, primarily
westward
Lasted 3 years
The Path of the Plague
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Traveled on trade routes and caravans
Generally from south to north
And east to west
Passing through
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Italy
France
England
Germany
Denmark
Sweden
Poland
Finland
Greenland
Preexisting Conditions
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War – Civil War in China 1205-1353
Little Ice Age at beg. Of 13th century
The Great Famine 1315-1322 in Northern
Europe
Typhoid Epidemic
Pestilence, maybe anthrax, hit the animals of
Europe in 1318
Unemployment, famine, disease
The Path of the Plague
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The progress of the
plague coincides with
the medieval trade
routes
Iceland, North
Finland, and North
Sweden had no
plague
Norway 1348 (Oslo,
Bergen)
Denmark 1348, from
Jutland to the islands,
and then on to
Sweden
Recurrences
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Every 5-7 years
Next plague: 1360 = The
Pest of the Children
Italian Plague 1629-1631
Great Plague of Vienna in
1679
Great Plague of London
1665-1666 – one of the
last major outbreaks
Resembles modern day
Ebola
Efforts to Stop the Plague
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Cities were hardest
hit
Isolation – healthy
and sick
Quarantine
Isolation of incoming
ships
Here: a reproduction
of a peasant’s hovel
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Efforts to stop the Plague
Scents incense
and
aromatic
oils
Sound –
church
bells
Sound –
cannons
Talismans
Here:
burial in
coffins
Efforts to stop the Plague
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Quarantine was the best method
Avoiding the sick
The wealthy fled to the countryside (Isaac
Newton)
Pope Clement VI in Avignon sat between two
large fires to breathe pure air. The plague
bacillus is destroyed by heat, so this worked!
The Flagellants
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Flagellants –
self-flogging to
atone for sins.
Popular after
disillusionment
with the church’s
reaction to the
Black Death
Outside the
Church
The Flagellants
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Christians - and
an angry Deity.
Bands
wandering
through towns
and countryside
Public penance.
Inflicted all kinds
of punishment
upon themselves
Sacrifice for the
sins of the world
– like Jesus
The Flagellants
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Society
disapproved
Tendency to kill
Jews and
clergymen who
opposed them
Condemned by
the Pope in
1349
Reappeared in
times of plague
into the 15th
century
Quotes on the Black Death
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Boccacio: The victims “ate lunch with their friend
and dinner with their ancestors in paradise”
Samuel Pepys: “Realizing what a deadly disaster
had come to them the people quickly drove the
Italians from their city… Fathers abandoned their
sick sons. Lawyers refused to come and make out
wills for the dying. Friars and nuns were left to care
for the sick…Bodies were left in empty houses, and
there was no one to give them a Christian burial.”
Consequences for Populations
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Approx. 25 million deaths in
Europe
Between one third and one half of
European population died 13481350
25% of villages depopulated
45-75% of Florence died in one
year
In Venice, 60% died over 18
months
Consequences for Population
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Urban populations recovered quickly
Rural populations recovered slowly
Friars took a couple of generations to recover
Pre-plague population reached in the 1500s
or 1600s
Later period of Middle Ages was
characterized by chronically reduced
population
Consequences for Population
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1348:
Gaza: 10.000 dead
Aleppo: 500 dead per day
Damascus: 1000 dead per day
Syria: total of 400.000 dead
Lower mortality rate in the
Middle East of less than one
third of population
Economic Consequences
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Shortage of laborers rising wages for
peasants and artisans
Valuable artisan skills disappeared
Oversupply of goods  prices dropped
For the living, standard of living rose!
Landlords stopped freeing their serfs serfs
revolting and leaving the land
The oppressed demanded fairer treatment
Economic Consequences
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The great
equalizer
Lack of
sufficient law
enforcement
personnel
Promoted
lawlessness
People tried
their luck
Religious Consequences
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Persecutions of the Jews –
scapegoats
Massacres and burnings
By 1351, 60 major and
150 smaller Jewish
communities had been
exterminated
Lepers were also targeted
Jews expelled, moved to
Poland & Lithuania
Religious Consequences
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Church lost prestige, spiritual authority, leadership
Promised cures, treatment, and explanations
No answers to the people
Revolt against the church
Severe shortage of clergy – functioned as nurses and
consequently died.
The church targeted the Jews for persecution – had
killed Jesus and brought sin to the world
Music and Art
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Culture turned morbid
Sense of death – impending &
inevitable
Death is a game, like chess!
Dance of death – death is random
Everyone suffered
Despair
Music and Art
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Danse Macabre = the
dance of death: skeletons
mingling with the living
(here: Hans Holbein the
Younger)
Shocking juxtapositions
Written language almost
lost
Coffins had pictures of
corpses on the lid
New creativity in motives
The Children
Ring a-round the rosy = rosary beads give you God’s
help
Pocket full of posies = used to stop the odor of rotting
bodies through to cause the plague
Ashes, ashes! = the church burned the dead when
burying became too laborious
We all fall down! = dead
 Children suffered mentally and physically
 Children were not thought worth the trouble to raise!
And Now?
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The bubonic Plague still exists
Quite common among rodent
populations
A cure is known today – but the
disease moves very quickly
The Plague is still with us
Hythe Ossuary, remains of victims
of the Black Death