1. And the end of the Middle Ages
The Black Death
And the end of the Middle Ages

2. Signs of God’s Wrath War: Hundred Years War (1337-1453);
Insurrections in France, England, Italy, German lands
Decline of the Byzantine Empire (fall 1453)
Famine ( )
Disease - Black Death ( )
Religious Turmoil - Papal Schism ( )
“No epoch was more naturally mad”
- Michelet

3. Hundred Years War 1337-1453 England v. France
Gunpowder, cannons introduced

4. Fall of Byzantine Empire

5. Papal Schism
Babylonian Captivity ( )
Three Popes (1409)

6. Plague Routes

7. Yersinia Pestis Spread primarily by fleas; brown rats - main carriers
Three Types
Bubonic
Pneumonic
Septicaemic

9. Symptoms of Plague
BUBONIC - fever, exhaustion, chills, swollen glands which turn red at first, then black PNEUMONIC - cough which produces frothy blood from lungs SEPTICAEMIC - internal bleeding; blood pools under skin causing black coloration

10. Responses to Plague: the Popular Level
Social Breakdown & Flight
Popular Devotional Movements
Pograms

11. Responses to Plague: the Authorities
Church Level Kingdom Level Manor Level

12. "I, as if among the dead, waiting til death do come, have put into writing truthfully what I have heard and verified. And that the writing may not perish with the scribe and the work fail with the laborer, I add parchment to continue it, if by chance anyone may be left in the future, and any child of Adam may escape this pestilence and continue the work thus commenced.”
John Clyn of Kilkenny, Ireland, 1349

13. Treatment Methods Theories of Contagion
Cannon Fire and Bonfire Quarantine
Milan’s Approach

14. Estimated Toll 25 Million Dead 1/3 of Europe Half of Asia
3/4 to 5/6 of the population of Florence and some other port cities

15. Consequences
Art and popular mindset
Church strength
Economic changes

16. Pre-plague artwork: Flat style, religious, idealistic themes Focus on decoration, spiritual themes

17. Artwork of plague years and immediately after: Obsession with death and death figures Far more realistic depiction of human figure and illness, injury (clearly evident in crucifixion images)

19. Return of Plague? Largest Outbreaks: 500’s 1349-1351 1660-1663
Last Epidemic: 1942
Last Outbreak: 1994