The Black Death

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The Black Death
1347 - 1351
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Global Epidemic

• Black Death Bubonic Plague
• Disease spread by fleas on rats
• Spread from Asia to Europe (trade routes)
• Fleas jumped from rats to infest the clothes and
  packs of traders traveling west

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The Culprits
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1347 Plague Reaches Constantinople!
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Terrible Death

• Unsanitary conditions in towns and homes
  guaranteed the disease would spread
• Symptoms swelling, black bruises, heavy
  sweats, convulsive coughing
• People spat blood and stank terribly (rotting
  flesh)

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The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria multiply in fleas gut.
Human is infected!
Fleas gut cloggedwith bacteria.
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into
human wound.
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Warning Next slide is gross!
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The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemic Formalmost 100 mortality rate.
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From the Toggenburg Bible, 1411
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Lancing a Buboe
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Social Upheaval

• Some people turned to magic and witchcraft for
  cures
• Some saw the plague as Gods punishment beat
  themselves with whips to show repentance for
  their sins
• Christians blamed Jews for the plague
• Decline of church influence church could not
  help them

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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Leeching
A Doctors Robe
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
FlagellantiSelf-inflicted penance for our
sins!
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pograms against the Jews
Golden Circle obligatory badge
Jew hat
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The Mortality Rate
35 - 70
25,000,000 dead !!!
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Economic Results

• Decline in population scarcity of labor (low
  production)
• Disruption of trade because disease spread along
  trade routes
• Low production high prices (low supply and
  high demand)
• Scarcity of labor workers demanded higher
  wages (fewer workers)

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Medieval Art the Plague
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Medieval Art the Plague
Bring out your dead!
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Medieval Art the Plague
An obsession with death.
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Boccaccio in The Decameron
The victims ate lunch with their friends and
dinner with their ancestors.
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The Danse Macabre
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Death TriumphantA Major Artistic Theme
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A Little Macabre Ditty
A sickly season, the merchant said,The town I
left was filled with dead,and everywhere these
queer red fliescrawled upon the corpses
eyes,eating them away.Fair make you sick,
the merchant said,They crawled upon the wine
and bread.Pale priests with oil and
books,bulging eyes and crazy looks,dropping
like the flies.
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A Little Macabre Ditty (2)
I had to laugh, the merchant said,The doctors
purged, and dosed, and bledAnd proved through
solemn disputationThe cause lay in some
constellation.Then they began to die.First
they sneezed, the merchant said,And then they
turned the brightest red,Begged for water, then
fell back.With bulging eyes and face turned
black,they waited for the flies.
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A Little Macabre Ditty (3)
I came away, the merchant said,You cant do
business with the dead.So Ive come here to ply
my trade.Youll find this to be a fine brocade
And then he sneezed
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