Medieval Black Death Flashcards
Dates for Medieval Black Death
1346-1353
Medieval Climate Anomaly
- unprecedented warmth from 9c-13c, creates expansion
How did trade in Mediterranean cities impact Plague (2)
- Venice, Pisa, Genoa, cleaned of Pirates, allowing there to be widespread trade
- Long distance trade = spread from the east
Late 13c contraction (7)
- Failure of Crusades: fall of Acre (last stronghold) and arrest of Templars (for being essentially evil magicians)
- economic downturn
- taxation not adjusted for growth, leading to overtaxation and aggravation
- endemic war (100 years war from 1336)
- Over population
- Great Famine of 1315-1322
- agricultural stagnation
Climate Anomaly of 1340s and 1350s
- culmination of 100 years of cooling
- worst growth year worldwide was 1346 (poor harvests, famine and flooding in Egypt)
- coincides with movement of wild rodents
Seige of Kaffa
- 1345-1346
- outbreak of plague with the Mongols
- flung dead bodies into Kaffa (likely didn’t do anything)
- returned home to Genoa via Constantinople
Who was most at risk according to Paris? (4)
- hot, wet bodies
- too much exercise or bathing
- the weak, thin and fearful
- women and children
What did Dr Gentile da Foglio suggest?
- 1348
- stay away from lettuce and fish, must eat fine food and drink measured in quantity
- purging and bleeding
- needed expensive theriacs (differentiated rich and poor)
Dr. Jacme d’Agramont of Lérida (6)
- 1348
- if Plague spreads through air there is nothing to be done
- use good fires, rosemary, myrtle
- avoid violent exercise
- abstain from sex
- basically no smelly tings
Civic Ordinances of Pistoia
- 1348
- deep graves to reduce stench
- prohibition of bringing in bodies
- butchers cannot inflate meat
- prohibition of tanners
Quarantine (Milan)
- biblical precedent
- Pistoia ordinance
- Ragussa: 30 day quarantine for visitors
Milan
- 1374
- Anyone with bubo had to leave the city
- parish priests who don’t report the sick are burned
Council of Siena
- 1349
- workers taxed more to compensate for higher wages
Cortes of Castille
- 1351
- outlaws beggars, individuals must remain in their trade
English Statute of Labourers
- 1351
- set salaries and prohibited movement of workers: assize court fines
Islam traditions with regard to plague (3)
- A muslim should not enter or flee plague stricken lands
- the plague is a martyrdom for the Muslim, punishment for the infidel
- contagion does not exist
Plague Treatise of Egyptian Ibn Hajar Plague treatise
- references OT plagues
- plague is martyrdom for Muslims
- miasma doesn’t account for the inconsistent spreading of the plague
- recommends prayer to lift the epidemic
Ibn Kathir
- 1350-51
- public penitence with Muslims, Jews, Christians.
Ibn Al Wardi
Asks for forgiveness for the transgressions that led to the plague
Ibn Al-Khatib
- 1349-52
- talks about contamination, saying that contaminated cloths, earrings –> plague
Evil Jinns and Magical Remedies (2)
- healing verses in Qu’aran
- write ‘life’ on house 18 times a day
Messina (4)
1347
- residents tried to steal relic from Catania when plague arrived
- demonic dogs appeared
- barefoot procession to return it
Other reasons for the plague (superstition) (3)
- women’s dress
- tournaments where women dress as men
- sins of the clergy
St Roch of Montpellier
- went on pilgrimage to Rome
- ministered to the sick there and got ill, but recovered
Scapegoating (5)
- Jews were blamed
- crusade massacres 1096
- host desecration in Paris
- expulsions
- poisoning wells
Who died first in the plague?
the poor. nobility survived more, royalty died off even less
- 20-100% death rates in some English towns
- Landless died off more
How are the death in England calculated?
heriots
How did the clergy die off?
lower class priests die off more, bishops even less
Which gender was more vulnerable in the first pestilence?
women
Which gender was more vulnerable in the second pestilence? how was this figured out?
men
more widow were inheriting land
Unsolved problems of the plague (2)
- it moved too fast (.62) miles per day (maybe more mammalian carriers)
- degree of virulence (illness and malnourishment were common in those who died)
Economic consequences
- end of feudalism
- Malthusian theory: population was rebalanced
- workers’ renaissance (wages went up, rise in English peasant holdings, rich lost ground)
- brief boom for women (contract work) but downturn in 15c
new cultural obsessions with death (4)
- momento morii genre of literature
- cult of suffering
- transis
- danse macabre
Miquel Parets (6)
1651-1654
- uniquely middle class (tanner)
- shows how prepared Barcelona was for the plague
- no sympathy for the poor
- still food shortages, best course of action was flight
- coincides with Spain’s loss of position in the world
Why did the bubonic plague decline in Europe? (5)
- 1666 great fire of London
- development of brick houses due to a wood shortage
- black rat lost prominence to the grey rat (which Wass a burrower)
- rise of quarantine?
- mutation of pathogen?
