Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] compelling study of the well-poisoning accusations that underpinned horrific acts of violence against lepers, beggars, foreigners, and Jews during the middle decades of the fourteenth century. While these accusations have featured prominently in earlier studies of the so-called Lepers’ Plot of 1321 as well as the Black Death,
Poisoned Wells presents the first systematic account of their emergence, elaboration, and afterlife. Through his persistent concern with the particularities of time, place, and documentary production, Barzilay both corrects many previous historiographical missteps and crafts a powerful account of the dynamics of persecution in the later Middle Ages." * The Medieval Review *
"With an enviable command of both primary and secondary sources, Tzafrir Barzilay meticulously documents the waves of violence that followed well-poisoning charges leveled against lepers, Jews, and other minority groups in Western Europe of the later Middle Ages." * Jeremy Cohen, Tel Aviv University *
