Bacteria multiply in flea’s gut.
Rat eats dead body
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound.
Video clip
• https:///watch?v=kScxc9 DPrnY
Sanitation poor
Disease widespread
Bring out your Dead!
Causes
• Lack of medical knowledge • Lack of sanitation • Lack of hygiene (soap and water)
– Baths monthly or once every 2 months
• Manorialism • Merchant trade ships from Asia
The Black Plague was an Epidemic
• Epidemic is an outbreak that spreads quickly and affects a large number of people
The Culprits
Bacteria
Fleas
Rats
The Symptmortality rate.
From the Toggenburg Bible,
1411
The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria.
Boccaccio in The Decameron
The victims ate lunch with their friends and
dinner with their ancestors.
Attempts to Stop the Plague
A Doctor’s Robe
Preventing “unclean smells”
The increase of trade between Europe & Asia
In order to have a Money economy
Bartering
Growth of banking Decline of feudal system
Towns grew along major trade routes …. with walls surrounding them.
• Tell him the symptoms, the deaths, treatment & effects, why it started & how s/he can protect himself
• Include these 10 words: plague, fear, God, merchants, faith, mass graves, business, death, skeptical, mortality
“Golden Circle” obligatory badge
Death Triumphant !: A Major Artistic Theme
Effects
• About 35 Million Chinese died • About 7,000 dead a day in Cairo • 1/3 of the European population dead • 25 million Europeans • Decline of faith in Christianity • Discrimination against Jews • Decline in feudalism/manorialism • Economic breakdown • End of Middle Ages
“Leeching”
Lancing a Buboe
Attempts to Stop the
Plague
Flagellanti:
Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!
Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pogroms against the Jews
• https:///watch?v=sFUQ CWghjWc
Medieval Art & the Plague
Medieval Art & the Plague
Bring out your dead!
Medieval Art & the Plague
An obsession with death.
The Mortality Rate
35% - 70%
9,000,000+ dead !!!
What were the political, economic,
and social effects of the Black Death??
Letter to cousin in Milan
• You are a former peasant living in the city of Venice. Write a letter warning your cousin about the Black death.