Samuel Curry

Prof. Bisson
HIS 1010
04/09/2022
THE BLACK DEATH

It does not take an in-depth recount of history to arrive at the subject of the great black

death. It is one such catastrophe that which anyone with any extent of knowledge regarding

European history is familiar with and rightly so. Estimated to have killed over twenty-five

million people1 it is one of the leading masses of human lives lost ever recorded. However, what

makes the black death so interesting is not necessarily the morbid equation of dead Europeans

but rather the way in which a previous world handled such a chaotic situation. Of course, now it

is widely understood how the black death, or the bubonic plague is formed, spread, and treated.

However, the people of the early and mid-fourteenth century were far from as lucky such that the

conclusion as to its origins, and expectations for its cure were vastly misplaced. These theories

spouting from physicians to priests provide a far clearer window into the lives in danger during

the height of the plague than any date or death toll. This essay will address firstly, how the black

death functioned, its signs and means of transmission, secondly, the general population’s

interpretation of these agents, and thirdly, the way in which governments and rulers handled such

chaos.

In order to understand these perspectives, one must first have some understanding of how

the plague behaved, its symptoms, and its methods in spreading so quickly across the eastern

hemisphere. There is no shortage of writings and documents from that age describing the

1
Black Death and the Jews 1348-1349 CE
physical signs of the black death. In most every piece, symptoms are described in detailed yet

simple and uniform ways. This is likely due to the fact that even the dullest of writers would

have understood how properly educating the reader, whether he be a scholar or barely literate,

would aid in keeping those infected secluded from the rest of society. It was crucial that every

individual had a solid grasp on who was and was not a risk to the city, so doctors and poets alike

made such distinctions easy. Descriptions included portrayals of tumor or sore like growths

around the armpits and groin area. Black spots adjacent to these parts of the body were also early

signs of the plague.2 Authors were careful to mention the significance of bleeding from the nose

or mouth as it almost always indicated a fatal case. As Marchione di Coppo Stefani wrote, “The

symptoms were the following: a bubo in the groin, where the thigh meets the trunk; or a small

swelling under the armpit; sudden fever; spitting blood and saliva (and no one who spit blood

survived it)”3 Giovanni Boccaccio stated in a similar summery, “an issue of blood from the nose

was a manifest sign of inevitable death.”4 Thus, both authors were concise and uniform in their

discussion of the symptoms such that they would be universally understood.

Another topic commonly addressed in these writings is the speed and breadth of the

plague’s spread. A poem authored by Abu Hafs Umar Ibn Al-Wardi reads,

China was not preserved from it nor could the strongest fortress hinder it. The plague
afflicted Indians…It weighed upon the Sind. It seized with its hand and ensnared even the
lands of the Uzbeks…The plague increased and spread further. It attacked the Persians,
extended its steps toward the land of the Khitai, and gnawed away at Crimea. It pelted
Rum…and led the outrage to Cyprus and…Cairo. Its eyes upon Egypt, and behold…It
stilled all movement in Alexandria.5

2
The Decameron
3
The Florentine Chronicle
4
The Decameron
5
Essay on the Report of the Pestilence.
Clearly there was an abundance of dread on account of the massive reach of the plague. Abu

Hafs writes on to describe twenty-three more major cities devastated by this so-called pestilence

ending with the remark. “How amazingly does it pursue the people of each house! One of them

spits blood, and everyone in the household is certain of death.”6 Others describe the manners in

which it spread. Being around the bodies of the dead, wearing dirty clothes and wools, and even

breathing the same air as the diseased were all reliable ways to find the black death. People

would flee their own towns and families while unknowingly infected, bringing the plague to new

towns. This rightfully terrifying danger brought governments to ban visitors from other cities

from entering within the walls.

Of course, with such horrific realities comes a plethora of theories concerning the origin

of the pestilence, some of which brought peace of mind and other which summoned further death

through mass genocide. In many Muslim communities, the plague was believed to be a second

cleansing of the earth of which the faithful were safe, recounting the story of Noah and the flood,

“of which a reading was made 3,363 times.”7 They exclaimed along with many Christians that it

was a great punishment sent by God upon man. “[T]here made its appearance that deadly

pestilence…sent upon us mortals by God in His just wrath by way of retribution for our

iniquities.”8 Scientists and doctors predicted that it was perhaps caused by a solar eclipse or the

closing distance of another planet such as Saturn or Jupiter.9 However the most harmful theory as

to the creation of this nation killer was that it was a plot of man, or more specifically, Jews. This

came about as men, trying to cope with the chaos, tortured a Jewish man by the name of Agimet

6
Ibid
7
The Beginning and End: On History
8
The Decameron
9
Short Casebook
until, out of desperation, he confessed to poising wells all across Europe, causing the plague.

This discovery spread quicker than the plague itself until Governments began burning and

slaughtering thousands of innocent Jews. Many of those that were not executed were stabbed in

the street by the commoners.10 As a result of citizens trying to make sense of the tragedy, the

death toll grew far faster.

Other dealt with this new harsh reality in different ways, some, locking themselves in,

forming communities in isolation, and others going about as if nothing was different, drinking at

taverns and eating what they pleased. “To laugh and mock at no event, was the sovereign remedy

for so great an evil.”11 Government handing thing in their own way like previously mentioned,

enforcing rules on who could and could not enter within the wall of a given city. Rulers also

fashioned laws prohibiting large gatherings at funerals and other occasions as to not further

spread the sickness. The proper removal and disposal were also made painfully clear to citizens

through laws and fines. Even the bells of the church were controlled because ringing after every

funeral would bring demoralization and panic to the public.12

In conclusion, authors in the time of the black death wrote clearly about the symptoms

and spread of the black death in order to protect the public. Theories and laws were sanctioned in

order to cope with the chaos, some of which made matters worse.

10
The Black Death and the Jews 1348-1349
11
The Decameron
12
Ordinances for Sanitation in a Time of Mortality