The Black Death: The World's Most Devastating Plague

Contemplating the enormity of the Black Death's impact on the medieval world; taking account of the state of medieval society on the eve of the plague; investigating the religious, economic, and political structures of mid-14th-century Europe.

Exploring the medical understanding of the plague; the sixth-century Plague of Justinian; the Black Death of the 1300s; the 19th-century Third Pandemic; examining the three predominant varieties of plague and their symptomatologies.

Reassessing the causes of the Black Death; questioning how it spread through medieval Europe with astonishing speed and virulence; investigating additional factors that may have contributed to the devastation, such as other diseases and bacteria.

Examining the plague's first sustained appearance in Europe; the Mongol siege that preceded the outbreak; how the plague moved west with escaping sailors; following the spread of the plague to Constantinople, Italy, France and England.

How the plague traveled by sea across the Mediterranean, invading port cities and then radiating inward; studying events in Sicily, Mallorca and Avignon; highlighting first-person accounts; assessing ways of measuring the plague's impact.

How Florence, the most advanced community in medieval Europe, dealt with the effects of the plague; the extraordinary and diverse responses of citizens; how leaders took steps to slow the spread of the disease and prevent the breakdown of the city.