Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World2015

It was one of the most famous health issues in history. The Black Death plague organism (Yersinia pestis) spread from Asia throughout the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Europe in the fourteenth century, and in just a decade it killed between 40 and 60 percent of the people living in those areas. Previous research has shown, especially for Western Europe, how population losses then led to structural economic, political, and social changes. But why and how did the pandemic happen in the first place? When and where did it begin? How was it sustained? What was its full geographic extent? And when did it really end? Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World is the first book to synthesize the new evidence and research methods that are providing fresh answers to these crucial questions. It was...