MIDDLE AGES

PANDEMICS
The Bubonic Plague
 What is a Pandemic
Though?
A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease over
a whole country or the world at a particular time
 01
THE DISEASE
The Black Death, The Black Plague, Bubonic Plague
What caused the Black Death

● Bacterial Infection
○ Yersinia pestis
● Spread from person to
person either
○ Through air
○ Bites of infected fleas
or rats
● Medieval towns were rife
with rats
● Rats were well versed
traveling on ships
ORIGIN OF THE Black Death

Originating in China and inner asia following

the army of Kipchak Khan Jenibeg while they
attacked modern day Crimea.
● Ships from the attacked port carried the
disease westword
○ Landing in Sicily, Messina 1347
○ North Africa, Spain, Italy, and France
1348
○ Austria, Hungary, Switzerland,
Germany, and other low countries
1349
○ Baltics and the UK in 1350
25,000,000
Estimated DEATHS! Or 1/3rd of the continents population
 Symptoms
● Fever
● Fatigue
● Shivering
● Vomiting
● Headaches
● Giddiness
● Intolerance to light
● Pain in the back and limps
● Sleeplessness
● Delirium
 Buboes
● Swollen and tender lymph nodes
○ Usually in the armpits and groin areas
 MEDIEVAL TREATMENT
● Four Thieves Vinegar
○ A mixture of Vinegar, garlic, herbs
and spices
■ More a preventive then a cure
● Onions
○ Rubbing chopped raw onion on
buboes
■ To draw out toxins and combat
miasma (poisonous fumes)
● Bloodletting
○ First combative of the black death.
Using a blade called a Fleam doctors
would cut veins along the neck or
forearm and drain the patients blood
● Vicary Method
○ Plucking the feathers from the rump of a chicken and then
tying the chicken to the patients bubos
■ Medieval period belief that chickens breathed through
their behind therefore drawing out the drawing out the
infections
● Snakes
○ Physicians would cut up and place the snake bits on the
body of the patient
■ Like attracts like (evil to evil, poison to poison)
● Leeches
○ Used to draw out bad blood, more localized then
bloodletting
● Feces
○ Human excrement mixed with other substances into a paste; smeared onto
buboes that have been cut open.
● Flagellation
○ Religious cure. Flagellants would walk the street stripped to the waist,
whipping themselves as penance. Purging their body of sin
● Powdered Unicorn Horn
○ Only could be acquired by a virgin maiden. Therefore super expensive.
● Fire
○ To keep the disease at bad; as well as sick people
■ It is known today that heat kills bacteria
● So kinda the only sane one
Doctors of the Plague
● Just the normal doctors of the day
for this time
● The famous Plague Doctor did not
come till the 16th and 17th century
○ Sorry no bird mask
 The lasting Plague
● The second Black Plague hit Europe between 1600 - 1670
○ Major outbreak in London between 1665-66 (just before the Great Fire of London)
● Third wave of Black Plague 1865 -1929
○ Stayed mostly in China and India
● Colorado has had 22 reported cases between 2015 and 2020
○ The US has on average 1-17 cases per year
 Assignment
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1
0Vm7D6IQiyRlQQzvcdPBEZIxlDbX
QzptaUQXGHmcBWE/edit?usp=shari
ng

https://16julianas.weebly.com/art-critique-exampl
e.html
 Art of the Black Death
“Dance of the Dead”

“Plague of Florence”
“Devils Sent to Kill”

“Persecution of Jews”
“The Triumph of Death”