The Black Death, 1346-1353: The Complete HistoryThe Black Death was a disaster of such magnitude that it not only shook the Old World to its economic and social foundations, but changed the course of human history. Yet this book is the first comprehensive history and assessment of its progress, and of the death and devastation it left in its wake, in all the countries through which it passed. The many local studies on the Black Death published in a variety of languages and scholarly papers have for the first time been systematically collected and thoroughly analysed. The medical and epidemiological characteristics of the disease, its geographical origin, its spread across Asia Minor, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and the mortality in the countries and regions for which there are satisfactory studies, are clearly presented and thoroughly discussed. The pattern, pace and seasonality of spread revealed through close scrutiny of these studies exactly reflect current medical work and standard studies on the epidemiology of bubonic plague. Benedictow's findings relating to the mortality caused by the Black Death are based on the meticulous study and synthesis of all available demographic studies. Published over the past forty years, most of them in widely dispersed local journals and local histories, this cumulative evidence, far-reaching in its implications, has gone largely unnoticed. This book makes it clear that the true mortality rate was far higher than has been previously thought. In the light of these findings, the discussion in the last part of the book showing the Black Death as a turning point in history takes on a new significance. |
Contents
Why the history of the Black Death is important | 3 |
Figures | 9 |
the Hydraheaded monster | 25 |
Tables | 31 |
The territorial origin of plague and of the Black Death | 35 |
6 | 57 |
8 | 72 |
Italy | 91 |
Estimates of population San Gimignano 1332 and 1349 | 296 |
Numbers of hearths in villages near Susa Piedmont 133567 | 304 |
Estimated population mortality in the Black Death in Tuscany and other | 307 |
France and the County of Savoy | 308 |
Changes in number of households before and after the Black Death in | 311 |
Decline in number of subsidypaying households in the castellany of | 318 |
Increase in number of households in the castellany of Ugine 13536 | 319 |
Decline in number of households and population size in parishes near | 321 |
Chronology of the spread of the Black Death in Italy | 94 |
Belgium | 110 |
Switzerland | 118 |
Institutions of new parish priests in Cambridgeshire in 1349 | 134 |
Norway | 146 |
Denmark | 159 |
Deaths of donors of chantries in Ribe Cathedral 1350 | 162 |
Donations to Swedish religious institutions 134150 | 174 |
Austria | 179 |
Germany | 185 |
The Netherlands | 203 |
Sweden | 206 |
The Baltic countries | 209 |
Russia | 211 |
some countries or regions escape? What happened in Iceland | 216 |
Part Three Patterns and Dynamics of the Black Death | 225 |
Patterns of conquest dynamics of spread | 227 |
Part Four Mortality in the Black Death | 243 |
The medieval demographic system | 245 |
Life expectancy and mortality in a population of males with a life | 249 |
Problems of source criticism methodology and demography | 257 |
Mortality in the taxpaying households of Grenis in the Black Death | 268 |
Spain | 273 |
Mortality in the Black Death in Spain | 284 |
Italy | 285 |
Average household size in four Italian localities 133980 | 289 |
Chambéry 13489 | 322 |
Number of taxpaying hearths in four parishes in the castellany of | 328 |
Decline in number of registered taxpaying peasant households in the | 330 |
Mortality rates in the Black Death in the County of Savoy | 331 |
Mortality in the Black Death in southcentral France | 334 |
Decline in number of fiscal hearths in SaintFlour 134556 | 335 |
Mortality in the Black Death in France | 337 |
Belgium | 338 |
Decline in number of households in two hamlets in Artois 134786 | 339 |
Average mortality rates at ages 070 according to Model West life table | 340 |
England | 342 |
Mortality rates of English beneficed parish clergy according to diocese | 359 |
Death rates on 15 manors in the diocese of Worcester | 362 |
Manorial death rate among tenants | 364 |
Mortality in 28 townships in the priory of Durham | 367 |
Decline in number of tithing members in 7 Essex communities 134556 | 372 |
Tithingmen in Kibworth Beauchamp 134654 | 374 |
Plague mortality among landless men in 17 manors of Glastonbury Abbey | 375 |
How many died in the Black Death? | 380 |
Mortality in the Black Death by various regions and countries | 383 |
Its Impact on History | 385 |
A Turning Point in History? | 387 |
Bibliography | 395 |
415 | |
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Common terms and phrases
according areas assumed average daily pace average household Baltic Baltic Sea Benedictow beneficed parish clergy Biraben bishop Black Death Black Death broke Black Death moved black rat bubonic plague cathedral caused cent century chroniclers coast comprised contained countryside County of Savoy demic demographic developments died diocese donations economic England epidemic epidemiological estimate Europe France Germany Golden Horde indicates infected invaded Italy Kingdom land Lübeck manorial manors medieval merindad metastatic leaps Middle Ages mortality rate normal northern northwards Norway number of households Oslo outbreak pace of spread parish priests peasant households persons phase plague contagion plague epidemics plague front pneumonic plague poor and destitute population density post-plague pre-plague present-day primary pneumonic plague probably rat fleas ravaged reason reflect region registers relation rural scholars ship Småland source-critical sources south-eastern southern standard assumption studies supermortality Table tenants territory tion tithing town urban centres winter weather