Transcript The Black Death

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.
?????????????????????
– 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 cities
Immunocompromised 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 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 1315-1317
 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 of
starvation & poverty
was susceptibility to
disease.
Symptoms


High fever
Swelling in the
lymphs




Chills
Malaise
Muscle pain
Severe headache

Seizures
2-3 days pneumonic
plague appears:
 Severe cough
 Frothy bloody sputum
 Difficulty 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 Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemic Form:
almost 100%
mortality rate.
From the Toggenburg Bible, 1411
Lancing a Buboe
The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood
that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria
multiply in
flea’s gut.
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and
regurgitates blood
into human wound.
Flea’s gut clogged
with bacteria.
Medieval Art & the Plague
Medieval Art & the Plague
Bring out your dead!
Medieval Art & the Plague
An obsession
with death.
Boccaccio in The Decameron
“The victims ate lunch with their
friends and dinner with their
ancestors.”
The Danse Macabre
The Danse 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 Plague
A Doctor’s
Robe
“Leeching”
Attempts to Stop the Plague
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 Plague
Pograms against the Jews
“Jew” hat
“Golden Circle”
obligatory badge
Death Triumphant !:
A Major Artistic Theme
A Little Macabre Ditty
“A sickly season,” the merchant said,
“The town I left was filled with dead,
and everywhere these queer red flies
crawled 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 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 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/t
emplates/student_resources/0534600069_
spielvogel/InteractiveMaps/swfs/map11_1.
html
75 to 200 million
people and peaking in
Europe from 1346–53
What were the
political,
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/Mancontracted-BUBONIC-PLAGUE-cat-speaks-ordeal-leftdeaths-door.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2701641/PartsChinese-city-quarantined-resident-dies-BUBONICPLAGUE-bitten-rodent.html