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{{Middle Ages}}
{{Middle Ages}}
An epidemic of the '''bubonic plague''' commonly called '''The Plague''' or the '''Black Death''' killed millions in Europe and many parts of Asia between 1347 and 1352. The plague was spread and transmitted by rats and other rodents, who [[Carrier|carried]] infected fleas in their fur. In all of recorded history, this epidemic has only two rivals: the plague of 542 and the [[flu]] epidemic of 1918. The long term effects affected the economy by causing a long-term labor shortage. Artists often depicted the mass trauma using three popular cultural representations that surfaced in performance, poetry, and painting: the Triumph of Death, the Dance of the Dead, and Death and the Maiden.
An epidemic of the '''bubonic plague''' commonly called '''The Plague''' or the '''Black Death''' killed millions in Europe and many parts of Asia between 1347 and 1352. The plague was spread and transmitted by rats and other rodents, who [[Carrier|carried]] infected fleas in their fur.
About 20 million of the 60 million people in Europe at the time died. In all of recorded history, this epidemic has only two rivals: the plague of 542 and the [[flu]] epidemic of 1918. The long term effects affected the economy by causing a long-term labor shortage. [[File:Plague.jpg|thumb|290px]]
===Symptoms===
===Symptoms===
The germ theory of disease had not been discovered, so the means of transmission and cure were a mystery to contemporary doctors. After the 3-7 day [[incubation period]], the sufferer would experience initial symptoms of chills, fever, diarrhea, headaches, and the swelling of the infected lymph nodes. If it was untreated, 30-75% of those who contracted the plague died.
The germ theory of disease had not been discovered, so the means of transmission and cure were a mystery to contemporary doctors. After the 3-7 day [[incubation period]], the sufferer would experience initial symptoms of chills, fever, diarrhea, headaches, and the swelling of the infected lymph nodes. If it was untreated, 30-75% of those who contracted the plague died.
The Black Death spurred monarchies and city-states across much of Western Europe to formulate new wage and price legislation. These legislative acts splintered in a multitude of directions that to date defy any obvious patterns of economic or political rationality. A comparison of labor laws in England, France, Provence, Aragon, Castile, the Low Countries, and the city-states of Italy shows that these laws did not flow logically from new post-plague demographics and economics - the realities of the supply and demand for labor. Instead, the new municipal and royal efforts to control labor and artisans' prices emerged from fears of the greed and supposed new powers of subaltern classes and are better understood in the contexts of anxiety that sprung forth from the Black Death's new horrors of mass mortality and destruction, resulting in social behavior such as the flagellant movement and the persecution of Jews, Catalans, and beggars.<ref> Samuel Cohn, "After the Black Death: Labour Legislation and Attitudes Towards Labour in Late-Medieval Western Europe," ''Economic History Review'' 2007 60(3): 457-485, </ref>
The Black Death spurred monarchies and city-states across much of Western Europe to formulate new wage and price legislation. These legislative acts splintered in a multitude of directions that to date defy any obvious patterns of economic or political rationality. A comparison of labor laws in England, France, Provence, Aragon, Castile, the Low Countries, and the city-states of Italy shows that these laws did not flow logically from new post-plague demographics and economics - the realities of the supply and demand for labor. Instead, the new municipal and royal efforts to control labor and artisans' prices emerged from fears of the greed and supposed new powers of subaltern classes and are better understood in the contexts of anxiety that sprung forth from the Black Death's new horrors of mass mortality and destruction, resulting in social behavior such as the flagellant movement and the persecution of Jews, Catalans, and beggars.<ref> Samuel Cohn, "After the Black Death: Labour Legislation and Attitudes Towards Labour in Late-Medieval Western Europe," ''Economic History Review'' 2007 60(3): 457-485, </ref>
==Popular response==
Artists often depicted the mass trauma using three popular cultural representations that surfaced in performance, poetry, and painting: the Triumph of Death, the Dance of the Dead, and Death and the Maiden.
The Plague was commonly interpreted by popular religiosity as a divine punishment despite some efforts to treat the disease medically. The theological interpretation viewed premature death by the plague as either God's rescue of His own from unmitigated evil or as punishment for the victim's sins. Other interpretations blamed the plague on evil lifestyles or, in the case of Bavarian physician, humanist, and astrologer Joseph Grünpeck (d. 1532), on unfavorable juxtapositions of the heavenly bodies. Piety, contrition, and repentance were recommended as therapies, along with intercessory prayer by the saints and sometimes even exorcisms and magic. Natural remedies included treatment with garden herbs. Intended for both physicians and literate society at large, the treatises indicate a close relationship between practical piety and natural-empirical treatment - something Dutch historian [[Johan Huizinga]] called "the almost irreconcilable contradictions" of late medieval religious life.
==Public health==
Modern methods of disease control originated in response to the Plague. Cities such as Venice created public health boards to use sanitation, quarantine, and isolation to slow the spread of the plague. Gradually these early boards became permanent fixtures and often employed elaborate inspectorates to identify possible disease sources. These boards spread slowly to northern Europe, with the first health boards appearing in France only in 1580. Soon northern Europe began to implement health measures on a national scale, such as the 1709 Prussian regulations on dealing with the plague. Such measures culminated in the Habsburg 'cordon sanitaire,' a thousand-mile, guarded border in the Balkans in effect from 1770 to 1871 to insulate the empire from epidemics common in the Ottoman Empire. These national endeavors tended to be more effective in dealing with large outbreaks of plague and other such diseases, but local measures retained their effectiveness against other endemic diseases.<ref> Gary B. Magee, "Disease Management in Pre-industrial Europe: A Reconsideration of the Efficacy of the Local Response to Epidemics," ''Journal of European Economic History'' 1997 26(3): 605-623, </ref>
==Today==
==Today==
The bubonic plague is still [[Endemic (epidemiology)|endemic]] to some parts of the world, such as Tanzania.<ref>
The bubonic plague is still [[Endemic (epidemiology)|endemic]] to some parts of the world, such as Tanzania.<ref>
* Gottfried, Robert S. ''The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe'' (1985) [http://www.amazon.com/Black-Death-Natural-Disaster-Medieval/dp/0029123704/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256619324&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Gottfried, Robert S. ''The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe'' (1985) [http://www.amazon.com/Black-Death-Natural-Disaster-Medieval/dp/0029123704/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256619324&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Naphy, William G., and Andrew Spicer. ''Plague: Black Death & Pestilence in Europe'' (2004)
* Naphy, William G., and Andrew Spicer. ''Plague: Black Death & Pestilence in Europe'' (2004)
* Platt, Colin. ''King Death: The Black Death and Its Aftermath in Late Medieval England'' (1996) 262pp. [http://www.amazon.com/King-Death-Aftermath-Late-Medieval-England/dp/0802079008/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256620751&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
== References ==
== References ==