The Black Death

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The Black Death
1347 - 1351
Ms. Susan M. PojerHorace Greeley HS
Chappaqua, NY
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The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria multiply in fleas gut.
Human is infected!
Fleas gut cloggedwith bacteria.
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into
human wound.
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The Culprits
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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 ofstarvation povertywas
  susceptibility todisease.

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1347 Plague Reaches Constantinople!
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The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemia Formalmost 100 mortality rate.
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From the Toggenburg Bible, 1411
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Lancing a Buboe
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Medieval Art the Plague
Bring out your dead!
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Medieval Art the Plague
An obsession with death.
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Boccaccio in The Decameron
The victims ate lunch with their friends and
dinner with their ancestors.
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Leeching
A Doctors Robe
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
FlagellantiSelf-inflicted penance for our
sins!
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pograms against the Jews
Golden Circle obligatory badge
Jew hat
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Death Triumphant !A Major Artistic Theme
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The Mortality Rate
35 - 70
25,000,000 dead !!!