The%20Black%20Death

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TheBlackDeath

• And the end of the Middle Ages

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Signs of Gods Wrath

• War Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
• Insurrections in France, England, Italy, German
  lands
• Decline of the Byzantine Empire (fall 1453)
• Famine (1315-1317)
• Disease - Black Death (1349-51)
• Religious Turmoil - Papal Schism (1378-1417)

No epoch was more naturally mad - Michelet
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Hundred Years War

• 1337-1453
• England v. France
• Gunpowder, cannons introduced

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Fall of Byzantine Empire
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Papal Schism

• Babylonian Captivity (1309-1377)
• Three Popes (1409)

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Plague Routes
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Yersinia Pestis

• Spread primarily by fleas brown rats - main
  carriers
• Three Types
• Bubonic
• Pneumonic
• Septicaemic

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Symptoms of Plague

• BUBONIC - fever, exhaustion, chills, swollen
  glands which turn red at first, then
  blackPNEUMONIC - cough which produces frothy
  blood from lungsSEPTICAEMIC - internal bleeding
  blood pools under skin causing black coloration

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Responses to Plaguethe Popular Level

• Social Breakdown Flight
• Popular Devotional Movements
• Pograms

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Responses to Plague the Authorities

• Church LevelKingdom LevelManor Level

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• "I, as if among the dead, waiting til death do
  come, have put into writing truthfully what I
  have heard and verified. And that the writing
  may not perish with the scribe and the work fail
  with the laborer, I add parchment to continue it,
  if by chance anyone may be left in the future,
  and any child of Adam may escape this pestilence
  and continue the work thus commenced.
• John Clyn of Kilkenny, Ireland, 1349

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Treatment MethodsTheories of Contagion

• Treatment MethodsTheories of Contagion
• Cannon Fire and BonfireQuarantine
• Milans Approach

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Estimated Toll

• 25 Million Dead
• 1/3 of Europe
• Half of Asia
• 3/4 to 5/6 of the population of Florence and
  some other port cities

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Consequences

• Art and popular mindset
• Church strength
• Economic changes

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• Pre-plague artworkFlat style, religious,
  idealistic themesFocus on decoration, spiritual
  themes

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• Artwork of plague years and immediately
  afterObsession with death and death figuresFar
  more realistic depiction of human figure and
  illness, injury (clearly evident in crucifixion
  images)

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Return of Plague?

• Largest Outbreaks 500s
• 1349-1351
• 1660-1663
• Last Epidemic 1942
• Last Outbreak 1994