MaplesJ.HIS101-W1 Blog 3
10/20/11
Black Death
The Bubonic Plague, named the Black Death later in history, decimated the population wherever it struck. This calamitous disease destroyed economic and social structures. Curiously after it struck those who had luck enough to survive it had a much better standard of living. Birthrates climbed after the Plague, and new universities were established for new post plague generations to benefit from being educated.
The Black Death began in 1346, it is believed to come from a region between the black and Caspian seas. Most historians believe what caused the Plague was the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, which is the same organism responsible for outbreaks of it today. It is believed that it was carried by fleas traveling on the backs of rats on merchant ships loaded with spices, silks and porcelain. It arrived in Europe by January 1348, six months later it would spread throughout all of Italy. After that it would spread to the Balkans and most of France, then it continued northward to Germany and France.
The Plague wiped out somewhere between one-third and sixty percent of the entire population. France was the hardest hit during the Plague years, both from the Black Death and the one hundred years war. All of Europe suffered from both of these afflictions, both the Plague and the hundred years war caused widespread havoc and destruction.
Some responses to the Black Death were immediate. Pistoia, which is an Italian city, set up a quarantine in 1348, no citizen could go to nearby Pisa or Lucca. The Pistoians thought that bad air brought the plague so that created more sanitary conditions. In other places the reactions to the plague were religious. The archbishop of York in England thought that more prayer was the answer to cure the plague, he ordered more devout processions were to be held every Wednesday and Friday.
The Dance of Death became popular as a subject of art, literature and performance. Every age, sex, and rank found their way to the grave in this theme. In paintings skeletal figures of Death laughed as they abducted their prey. The Dance of death was performed occasionally in a church or a princely court.
