Medieval World

Black Death• Caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis,

which still circulates among humans

• After genetic material from four London victim’s teeth were extracted, teams of researchers have sequenced 99% of the plague’s genome (2011).

• First big pandemic with disseminated Yersinia pestis in humans

Black Death – called so due to the blackened skin of the

victims• A pneumonic infection, highly

contagious, which could be transmitted via inhalation, ingestion, or even a slight abrasion on the skin.

• Lung lesions occur, heart and kidneys turn to fatty goo, and death usually results from heart failure

• The walls of blood vessels hemorrhage

A Little History

•A disease is sometimes so horrible that it stains the fabric of society. Moral and ethical questions surface concerning the cause and treatment of the disease.

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– Why do some people get the disease, while others are spared?

– Is anyone to blame for spreading the disease?

– Is it everyman for himself, or man’s duty to help each other?

A Little History• It was a common belief during the Middle

Ages that the Black Plague was a punishment sent by God for the supposed wickedness and corruption of the times.

• Methods of preventing or treating the plague were often based on magic or the supernatural.

• Medieval doctors had no idea that a bacteria that lived on the fleas was the true cause of the plague

A Little History

• Many doctors who treated the plague fell victim themselves

• Processions of flagellants were common and sometimes the common people joined their parades

• Human greed, worldliness and neglect of religion had caused the plague

Moirai - Fates

Clotho – spins the thread of life

Lachesis – draws off the thread

Atropos – cuts it

One could rise and fall based on the Fates’ actions, even the gods feared them

Black Death – a perfect storm

• Much of the mortality is explained by situational factors

Cooler climate conditions, excess of rain led to failed crop harvests and widespread hunger

Overcrowded medieval citiesImmunocompromised population living

under stressful conditions –

A Little History

• Medieval cities were often crowded, dirty and unhealthy.

• Poor sanitation and a lack of personal cleanliness provided ideal ground for breeding disease

• 1/3 of the population died, leaving workers in short supply. Peasants began to realize their worth and demand fewer taxes and more rights changed the world

Medieval Medicine

• Medievals believed that there were 4 humors in the human body. The balance of these 4 humors was essential for good health. Balance was achieved by diet, medicines and phlebotomy

•Blood – sanguine (social, pleasure)•Phlegm – phlegmatic (relaxed, quiet)•Yellow Bile – choleric (ambition)•Black Bile – melancholy (thoughtful)

Healing• Herbal remedies were

common• Most treatment was

done at home• Given the medical

uncertainty of the time, many medievals turned towards charms, special prayers or rituals

• Rural vs. city

Blood-letting• Allowed for control of

the humors

• Dangers: infection, weakening of the body, cutting an artery instead of a vein, bleeding to death, loss of consciousness

• Blood circulation was not widely accepted until well into the 1500s

The CulpritsThe Culprits

Should we blame the rats??

• 'Rats were carriers but they also died from bubonic plague. If it had been this disease you would expect to find large deposits of 14th century rat bones. These would have survived the centuries in the timber waterfronts in the city, but we found very few bones.'

The Famine of The Famine of 1315-13171315-1317

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 1315-17 because of excessive rain.

As many as 15% of the peasants in some English villages died.

One consequence ofstarvation & povertywas susceptibility todisease.

SymptomsSymptoms High feverHigh fever

Swelling in the Swelling in the lymphs lymphs

ChillsChills

MalaiseMalaise

Muscle painMuscle pain

Severe headacheSevere headache

SeizuresSeizures

2-3 days pneumonic plague appears:

Severe coughFrothy bloody sputumDifficulty breathing

Septicemic Plague

Organ failure low blood pressure

Nausea, vomiting Low blood pressure

Fever Blood clotting

problems Abdominal pain

• Persons with the plague need immediate treatment, meaning within 24 hours of when the first symptoms occurred

• Antibiotics are used to treat the plague

The The SymptomsSymptoms

Bulbous

Septicemic Form:

almost 100% mortality rate.

From the From the Toggenburg Toggenburg BibleBible, 1411, 1411

Lancing a BuboeLancing a Buboe

The Disease The Disease CycleCycle

Flea drinks rat blood that carries the

bacteria.

Flea drinks rat blood that carries the

bacteria.

Flea’s gut cloggedwith bacteria.

Flea’s gut cloggedwith bacteria.

Bacteriamultiply inflea’s gut.

Bacteriamultiply inflea’s gut.

Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound.

Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound.

Human is infected!Human is infected!

Medieval Art & the Medieval Art & the PlaguePlague

Medieval Art & the Medieval Art & the PlaguePlague

Bring out your dead!

Medieval Art & the Medieval Art & the PlaguePlague

An obsession with death.

Boccaccio in Boccaccio in The The DecameronDecameron

Boccaccio in Boccaccio in The The DecameronDecameron

“The victims ate lunch with their

friends and dinner with their

ancestors.”

The The Danse Danse MacabreMacabre

The The Danse MacabreDanse Macabre

• People believed that Death was a spirit come to kill them

• People believed Christ was shooting arrows at them

• Burials were observed in the early stages, but as time progressed, vast burial pits became the norm.

Attempts to Stop the Attempts to Stop the PlaguePlague

A Doctor’s Robe

“Leeching”

Attempts to Stop the Attempts to Stop the PlaguePlague

Flagellanti:Self-inflicted “penance” for our

sins!

Jews were persecuted

• Under the pressure of extreme terror, people sought scapegoats and the alien community of Jews was a natural target

• An additional reason: Jews were involved in money-lending and a debtor could cancel his debt by murdering the Jew who gave him money

• Ex: In Strasbourg, 2,000 Jews were burnt on a great scaffold

Attempts to Stop the Attempts to Stop the PlaguePlague

Pograms against the Jews

“Jew” hat

“Golden Circle” obligatory badge

Death Triumphant !:Death Triumphant !:A Major Artistic A Major Artistic

ThemeTheme

A Little Macabre A Little Macabre DittyDitty“A sickly season,” the merchant said,

“The town I left was filled with dead,and everywhere these queer red fliescrawled upon the corpses’ eyes,eating them away.”

“Fair make you sick,” the merchant said,“They crawled upon the wine and bread.Pale priests with oil and books,bulging eyes and crazy looks,dropping like the flies.”

A Little Macabre A Little Macabre Ditty (2)Ditty (2)

“I had to laugh,” the merchant said,“The doctors purged, and dosed, and bled;“And proved through solemn disputation“The cause lay in some constellation.“Then they began to die.”

“First they sneezed,” the merchant said,“And then they turned the brightest red,Begged for water, then fell back.With bulging eyes and face turned black,

they waited for the flies.”

A Little Macabre A Little Macabre Ditty (3)Ditty (3)

“I came away,” the merchant said,“You can’t do business with the dead.“So I’ve come here to ply my trade.“You’ll find this to be a fine brocade…”

And then he sneezed……….!

The Mortality Rate

•The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400.

• http://wadsworth.cengage.com/history_d/templates/student_resources/0534600069_spielvogel/InteractiveMaps/swfs/map11_1.html

75 to 200 million

people and peaking in

Europe from 1346–53

What were thepolitical,

economic,and social effects

of the Black Death??

The Black Death

Pieter Bruegel's The Triumph of Death (c.1562)

•reflects the social upheaval and terror that followed plague, which devastated medieval Europe

2014 news

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2550896/Man-contracted-BUBONIC-PLAGUE-cat-speaks-ordeal-left-deaths-door.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2701641/Parts-Chinese-city-quarantined-resident-dies-BUBONIC-PLAGUE-bitten-rodent.html