Description
Book SynopsisEssays address plague and disease in the fifteenth century, as manifested throughout Europe. Described as "a golden age of pathogens", the long fifteenth century was notable for a series of international, national and regional epidemics that had a profound effect upon the fabric of society. The impact of pestilence upon the literary, religious, social and political life of men, women and children throughout Europe and beyond continues to excite lively debate among historians, as the ten papers presented in this volume confirm. They deal with theresponse of urban communities in England, France and Italy to matters of public health, governance and welfare, as well as addressing the reactions of the medical profession to successive outbreaks of disease, and of individuals to the omnipresence of death, while two, very different, essays examine the important, if sometimes controversial, contribution now being made by microbiologists to our understanding of the Black Death. Contributors: J.L. Bolton, Elma Brenner, Samuel Cohn, John Henderson, Neil Murphy, Elizabeth Rutledge, Samantha Sagui, Karen Smyth, Jane Stevens Crawshaw, Sheila Sweetinburgh.
Trade ReviewA thought-provoking collection of articles. * ARCHIVES *
Interesting and important. * THE RICARDIAN *
These essays offer an interesting glimpse of how the century after the Black Death continued to acknowledge, respond to, plan for and generally live with this waxing and waning threat. * SOCIAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE *
Aid[s] our understanding of [plague] and its human responses and will be a welcome addition to any medical history library. * VESALIUS *
[O]ffers a good overview to the types of social and institutional challenges that medieval Europeans faced with regular outbreaks of plague and other disease. . . . Those teaching advanced-level courses on the Black Death, medical history, or medieval public health will find the volume useful for themselves as well as their students. * SPECULUM *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Carole Rawcliffe Looking for Yersinia Pestis: Scientists, Historians and the Black Death - Jim L Bolton Pestilence and Poetry: John Lydgate's Danse Macabre - Karen Smyth Pilgrimage in 'an Age of Plague': Seeking Canterbury's 'hooly blisful martir' in 1420 and 1470 - Sheila Sweetinburgh An Urban Environment: Norwich in the Fifteenth Century - Elizabeth Rutledge Mid-Level Officials in Fifteenth-Century Norwich - Samantha Sagui Leprosy and Public Health in Late Medieval Rouen - Elma Brenner Plague Ordinances and the Management of Infectious Diseases in Northern French Towns, c.1450 - c.1560 - Neil Murphy The Renaissance Invention of Quarantine - Jane Stevens Crawshaw Coping with Epidemics in Renaissance Italy: Plague and the Great Pox - John Henderson The Historian and the Laboratory: The Black Death Disease - Samuel K. Cohn
