The Black Death and the Transformation of the WestThe Black Death was the great watershed in medieval history. In this compact book, David Herlihy makes bold yet subtle and subversive inquiries that challenge historical thinking about this disastrous period. As in a finely tuned detective story, he upturns intriguing bits of epidemiological evidence. And, looking beyond the view of the Black Death as unmitigated catastrophe, Herlihy sees in it the birth of technological advance as societies struggled to create labor-saving devices in the wake of population losses. New evidence for the plague's role in the establishment of universities, the spread of Christianity, the dissemination of vernacular cultures, and even the rise of nationalism demonstrates that this cataclysmic event marked a true turning point in history. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Medical Problems | 17 |
The New Economic and Demographic System | 39 |
Copyright | |
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Agrarian Alexandre Yersin appeared argued Avignon Black Death Boccaccio buboes bubonic plague Cambridge University Press Campbell Catasto Chiffoleau cholera Christian Chronicle Church Cited contemporary countryside crisis of feudalism cult cultural David Herlihy dead Decameron decline demographic system disease E. A. Wrigley early fourteenth early modern economic England essays European famines fifteenth century Florence Florentine fourteenth century Francesco Giovanni grandes pestes Guy de Chauliac Herlihy's high mortalities historians History household human numbers Ibid infected Italy Jews land late fourteenth late medieval late Middle Ages lenticulae London Lucenet Malthus Malthusian Manchester Matteo Villani Medicine Medieval Europe medieval society nineteenth numbers Paris peasant pestilence Philippe Ariès physicians Pistoia pneumonic plague poor population port post-plague pre-plague preventive checks priests Renaissance rodents Rosemary Horrox saints Santa Maria Novella sick sixteenth social spread Studies teenth century thirteenth century tion tury Tuscany Viterbo Western Europe women Yersinia Yersinia pestis