The Black Death : Annotated Bibliography

The Black Death discusses the causes and results of the plague that devastated medieval Europe. It focuses on the many effects it had on the culture of medieval Europe and the possibility that it expedited cultural change. I found that Robert S. Gottfried had two main theses in the book. He argued that rodent and insect life cycles, as well as the changing of weather systems affect plague. He claimed that the devastation plague causes is partly due to its perpetual recurrences. Plague ravaged Europe in cycles, devastated the people when they were recuperating. As can be later discovered in the book, the cycles of plague consumed the European population. A second thesis, which he described in greater detail,

(n.d.). Deutsches Medizinhistorisches Museum | Aktuell | Objektgeschichten | April 2011: Pestarztmaske. Retrieved December 11, 2016, from http://www.dmm-ingolstadt.de/index.php?id=85 1): I know this is an academic source because it is the official page of the museum of medicine located on Germany, one of the many countries that was part of the Frank empire2): This Article made by Prof. Dr. Marion Ruisinger tells us that these masks were first used in the 14th century when the Black Death started. Doctors and surgeons used this mask to treat patients with the plague because it was thought that the foul air caused the disease so they filled the beak with sponged filled with essences and fragrances, Also the opening of the eyes was covered with

The Black Plague or Black Death was an outbreak of a disease that was spread through rats, feces, fleas, and physical contact. The epidemic began in China, where, during wars, soldiers hurled infected bodies at Italian soldiers, consequently the physical contact. The Italians would go back home on their ships, which was infested with rats and fleas. Unknowingly, they would spread the newfound disease amongst those they came into contact with when they returned to Italy. In the spring of 1348, the disease reached Italy and began to spread like wildfire. Three years later, the Plague had already taken 25%-50% of Europe’s population. The Black Plague was so devastating due to the ignorance of it, trade routes, and fear.

Do you know what The Black Plague was, it was a horrible disease that people back in the middle ages didn’t know where it came from how to fight off against it and how it spread. People back then didn’t know where it came from but scientists now think they know. Scientists think that Black Rats and fleas caused the black plague that the fleas carried it and gave it to the rats then the rats passed it along then the rats died and the fleas moved to a new host they moved to humans and spread it even further.(A&E, The Black Death)The rats that infected the humans lived in a city called Kaffa and then went on ships with people and moved to other places like Italy, Constantinople and England. When the rats died the fleas went to humans and the rat’s dead bodies would give an animal and or human the virus without the flea having to bite anyone. (Stephen Person pg.4)The fleas probably feed on the rats blood and gave the rat the infection the rat then died and the fleas moved on to a new rat when there were no more living rats they probably went on to humans

The Black Death was a plague that was spread around England from 1348-1349. The plague is an infectious disease that is caused by Yersinia Pestis, which is a bacteria that is found in mainly rodents, especially fleas and rats. The “Black Death” killed about one-third of the population in Europe during the 1300’s, which were about twenty to thirty million people. The bacteria can affect people three different ways: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plague.

The causes of the Black Death – the flea, the rat, and the bacillus Yersinia pestis– have been labeled the “unholy trinity” (Boeckl). The flea is able to live in environmental conditions of about 74° Fahrenheit and 60% humidity (Ibid). Before the Black Death reached Europe, they were experiencing those same types of weather conditions. The rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis and the human flea, Pulex irritans, are both capable of transmitting plague (Boeckl). Sometimes, an infected flea cannot ingest blood because Yersinia pestis obstructs its digestive tract. The blockage causes a flea to regurgitate into a bitten host rather than ingest the host’s blood, thereby infecting the host with plague (Boeckl). Unable to eat, the famished flea will bite with more frequency, accelerating the spread of plague. A flea can be carrying Yersinia pestis without it blocking the flea’s digestive tract, in which case the flea does not transmit plague when it bites a host. Also, Yersinia pestis can only enter a victim through a bite, as the bacilli cannot pass through intact skin (Gottfried).

The documentary of the black death was packed with information, and is guaranteed to inform watchers of the black page in some form or another. It informed of those who died, specific people and showed the groups and times of death. The documentary also had a great way of informing people of this disease and showing how truly tragic this death was.

During 1348- 1349, a devastating sickness swept over all of Western Europe that wiped out about half of the population. The Black Death, also known as The Plague and the Bubonic Plague, killed thousands over the span of two summers. The Black Death was caused by the bacteria Y. Pestis, which normally lives dormant in a flea's stomach. However, when a flea bites a rat, the rat becomes infected, which eventually leads to a human being infected. Since rats had a high abundance in 1348-1349, the disease was very easily spread to humans, where it then became airborne (pneumonic), bubonic, or spread throughout the blood, also known as systemic. (The Black Death).

The Black Death never really went away since its run in the 1350s. Modern sanitation and public-health practices have greatly mitigated the impact of the disease but have not eliminated it. The plague would reappear every few generation for centuries. For example there was a death of a herdman in Kyrgyzstan in 2013 from the bubonic plague that was widely exaggerated in the media. But today with our better understanding of the Black Death, other diseases among animals such as the swine-flu and the bird-flu are being carefully monitored today in case they were to develop into person-to-person

Sickness times a thousand equals the Black Death. In our world, many disasters have occurred, causing terrible damage emotionally, physically, and mentally. However, I believe that the Black Death is the worst disaster to have occurred throughout our world’s history. It all started in 1348, when trading ships from different countries around Europe settled at the port of Messina, Sicily. Once the ship dropped their anchor many of their sailors were found dead, and the few surviving carried with them the deadly disease so dangerous that it would quickly lead to death. Scientists researched and concluded that the disease started from Central Asia (Mongolia), when fleas on rats boarded the many ships from Europe. The fleas got on the sailors’ skin and started killing them instantly. However, many thought that the disease had originated from the Far East and was spread along many major trade routes. When the people of Sicily finally started finding out what was causing the death, they closed their port and trading system with other countries. (Wikipedia) The ships were forced to anchor somewhere else in other countries, which allowed the disease to spread even more quickly. I believe that the Black Plague was a disastrous event that affected all aspects and the future of European and Central Asian society, their political and economic environment, and their future advancement to medicine.

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history. The disease ravaged Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa between 1346 and 1353 (Horrox 1994). It is difficult to understand the reality of such a devastating event, especially given the fact that science during the middle ages was severely underdeveloped. No one knew about bacteria, viruses, or other microbial agents of disease (Benedictow 2004). They had no way of protecting themselves during that time and no one was safe from the effects of the plague. Those who wrote chronicles claimed that only a tenth of the population had survived, while others claimed that half to a third of the population was left alive (Horrox 1994). In 1351, agents for Pope Clement VI predicted the number of deaths in Europe to be 23,840,000 (Gottfried 1983). Obviously, not all regions experienced the same mortality rates, but modern estimates of the death rate in England give the first outbreak a mortality rate of about forty-eight percent (Horrox 1994). That is, England lost half of its population in about a year and a half. Clearly the chroniclers ' who claimed that ninety percent of the population had died were overstating the magnitude of the plague, but this overemphasis demonstrates how terrifying the pandemic was to those who experienced it (Horrox 1994). The Black Death had huge consequences on the lives of those who were impacted directly, as well as major religious and cultural effects that came afterward.

In 1347 news reached England of a horrifying and incurable disease that was spreading from Asia through North Africa and Europe. The Black Death struck London in the autumn of 1348. No one knew how to stop the disease. During the next 18 months it killed half of all Londoners – perhaps 40,000 people. There were so many dead that Londoners had to dig mass graves (large trenches for many bodies). This picture shows one of these graves, which was excavated by archaeologists at the Royal Mint site near the Tower of London. In some of the trenches, the bodies were piled on top of each other, up to five deep. Children’s bodies were placed in the small spaces between adults. By 1350 the Black Death had killed millions of people, possibly half the

The Black Death resulted in the death of over 25 million people and one third of Europe’s people from 1347 to 1352. This disease originated in China in the early 1330’s and started to spread to Western Asia and Europe through trade. The bubonic plague, aka Black Death, affects rodents mostly but fleas can transmit disease to people. Once a one person is infected, it was easily transmitted. The plague caused fever and swelling of the lymph glands. It also caused red spots on the skin, but then turned into black spots. During the winter the plague seemed to vanish, but came back and happened in waves. The aftermath of the Black Death had a major impact on, literature, religion, and the economy.

The pandemic known to history as the Black Death was one of the world’s worst natural disasters in history. It was a critical time for many as the plague hit Europe and “devastated the Western world from 1347 to 1351, killing 25%-50% of Europe’s population and causing or accelerating marked political, economic, social, and cultural changes.” The plague made an unforgettable impact on the history of the West. It is believed to have originated somewhere in the steppes of central Asia in the 1330s and then spread westwards along the caravan routes. It spread over Europe like a wildfire and left a devastating mark wherever it passed. In its first few weeks in Europe, it killed between 100 and 200 people per day. Furthermore, as the weather became colder, the plague worsened, escalating the mortality rate to as high as 750 deaths per day. By the spring of 1348, the death toll may have reached 1000 a day. One of the main reasons the plague spread so quickly and had such a devastating effect on Europe was ultimately due to the lack of medical knowledge during the medieval time period.

In the year 1348 the world changed forever. The Black Death, which is another name for the Bubonic Plague, laid havoc on the entire world. “The plague chases the screaming without pity and does not accept a treasure for a ransom. Its engine is far-reaching. The plague enters into the house and swears it will not leave except with all of its inhabitants…” (Al-Wardi, #29, 113). The plague did not care if the people were rich, poor, white, black, Muslim or Catholic, it would kill whomever it could. The plague brought out the worst in people because people acted selfishly, people were completely inhumane, and there was no peace.