1. The Black Death

2. The Famine of
By 1300 Europeans were farming almost all the land they could cultivate.
A population crisis developed.
Climate changes in Europe produced three years of crop failures between because of excessive rain.
As many as 15% of the peasants in some English villages died.
One consequence of starvation & poverty was susceptibility to disease.

3. 1347: Plague Reaches Constantinople!

4. The Culprits

5. The Disease Cycle Human is infected!
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria.
Bacteria
multiply in
flea’s gut.
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound.
Flea’s gut clogged with bacteria.

6. From the Toggenburg Bible, 1411

7. Septicemic Form: almost 100% mortality rate.
The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemic Form: almost 100% mortality rate.

8. Lancing a Buboe

9. Medieval Art & the Plague
Bring out your dead!

10. Boccaccio in The Decameron
The victims ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors.

12. Attempts to Stop the Plague
“Leeching”
A Doctor’s Robe

13. Attempts to Stop the Plague
Flagellanti: Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!

14. Medieval Art & the Plague

15. Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pograms against the Jews
“Golden Circle” obligatory badge
“Jew” hat

16. Death Triumphant !: A Major Artistic Theme

17. Medieval Art & the Plague An obsession with death.

18. The Mortality Rate
35% - 70%
25,000,000 dead !!!

19. What were the political, economic, and social effects of the Black Death??