Gilbert MT, Cuccui J, White W, Lynnerup N, Titball RW, Cooper A, Prentice MB (February 2004). "Absence of Yersinia pestis-specific DNA in human teeth from five European excavations of putative plague victims". Microbiology. 150 (Pt 2): 341–354. doi: 10.1099/mic.0.26594-0. PMID 14766912. They did all of this because they were terrified of dying suddenly, “unable to confess adequately or to express sufficient contrition.” “It is impossible to overstress the importance of a “good death,” which was essential to ensure the safe journey of the soul from this world to the next, shortening the time spent in Purgatory, and the easing the pains while there.” Few plague victims were “able to respond to the urgings of their confessors, and many were incapable of even understanding what was said to them.” Because of this, the plague posed a threat not only to people's bodies but also their souls. John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, 600 Newton Road, Iowa City, IA 52242-1098 The plague awakes an anti-Semitic rage around Europe, causing repeated massacres of Jewish communities, with the first one taking place in Provence, where 40 Jews were murdered. The populations of some Italian cities, notably Florence, did not regain their pre-14th century size until the 19th century. [132]

Exactly what it says on the tin... in the author's own words, this book contains almost no original work, and little new information. Instead, he's taken a huge body of specialized treatises on the subject and parsed them into an eminently-readable book that will appeal to anyone with an interest in the Middle Ages, human nature under adversity, and/or epidemiology. A pitiful and lamentable pestilence began in the year 1348 and endured for three years throughout the world. It resulted from the aforesaid locusts or vermin. It started in India and spread as far as England, ravaging Italy and France, and finally Germany and Hungary. The mortality was so rapid and great that barely ten persons out of every thousand survived. In some regions only about one third of the population escaped. Many cities, towns, marts and villages died out entirely and remained void. Some said that the Jews increased this calamity by poisoning the wells." de Corbeil G (1907) [1200]. Valentin R (ed.). Egidii Corboliensis Viaticus: De signis et symptomatibus aegritudium (in Latin). Harvard University: In aedibus B.G. Teubneri.

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (24 September 2015). "FAQ: Plague". Archived from the original on 30 March 2019 . Retrieved 24 April 2017. There were some facts mentioned in this history that I had not encountered in other accounts of the plague. For example, I had previously read about two variations of the plague; the common Bubonic type and the somewhat rarer but almost always fatal Pneumonic plague. But this history mentions an apparent third type of plague – the Septicemic plague which, again, was almost always fatal, and which caused death in a day or less (as opposed to two days for the Pneumonic plague and about five days for the Bubonic plague). Conclusions on the impacts and linkages to changes in feudal laws, the Peasants' Revolt, the reformation etc are also covered. It is here I suspect that 40 years' on much research may have been done and Mr Ziegler's views may now be superseded or outdated. John of Fordun's Scotichronicon ("there was a great pestilence and mortality of men") Horrox 1994, p.84 The book ends with a quote, which shows how far we have come since the dark/middle ages and – in hindsight – how little we have learned:

Some upper-class men joined processions of flagellants that traveled from town to town and engaged in public displays of penance and punishment: They would beat themselves and one another with heavy leather straps studded with sharp pieces of metal while the townspeople looked on. For 33 1/2 days, the flagellants repeated this ritual three times a day. Then they would move on to the next town and begin the process over again. Mostly though, it is a straight history of the plague, with sources and footnotes and everything. The author also includes information on what is now known about the plague that was not known at the time. Howard J (6 July 2020). "Plague was one of history's deadliest diseases–then we found a cure". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020 . Retrieved 3 December 2020. Plague – Madagascar". World Health Organisation. 21 November 2014. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019 . Retrieved 26 November 2014.

Spread to the South

This could have been done better. In fact, I think a similar concept was applied when Barbara Tuchman wrote 'A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century'. She created a very cohesive narrative by selecting a relatively obscure figure out of history and tracing the events of the century as they had happened to him, on both a grand and a very personal level. The difference here is that her figure, Enguerrand de Coucy, was a very real person, as opposed to Hatcher's Master John, who is a work of invention. I enjoyed reading the book, but many won't because the book does not simply focus on the historical or social aspects. It goes deep in medical terms, so readers who only expect the historical aspect without any medical or terminological interest won't find it enjoyable giving up in the middle of the read.

Because 14th-century healers and governments were at a loss to explain or stop the disease, Europeans turned to astrological forces, earthquakes and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for outbreaks. [19] Many believed the epidemic was a punishment by God for their sins, and could be relieved by winning God's forgiveness. [143] Roast the shells of newly laid eggs, and grind them to a powder—add Marigold flowers and treacle—drink in warm beer every morning and night. Samia NI, Kausrud KL, Heesterbeek H, Ageyev V, Begon M, Chan KS, Stenseth NC (August 2011). "Dynamics of the plague-wildlife-human system in Central Asia are controlled by two epidemiological thresholds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 108 (35): 14527–14532. Bibcode: 2011PNAS..10814527S. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1015946108. PMC 3167548. PMID 21856946. Roosen J, Curtis DR (2018). "Dangers of Noncritical Use of Historical Plague Data". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 24 (1): 103–10. doi: 10.3201/eid2401.170477. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Echenberg M (2007). Plague Ports: The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague: 1894–1901. Sacramento: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-2232-9.

What was the Black Death?

Twelve plague outbreaks in Australia between 1900 and 1925 resulted in over 1,000 deaths, chiefly in Sydney. This led to the establishment of a Public Health Department there which undertook some leading-edge research on plague transmission from rat fleas to humans via the bacillus Yersinia pestis. [171]