Black Death
The black plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1352 put entire societies in flux as those who were infected lived in very for their lives. The death of 25 million people would not go unnoticed. Consequently analyzing the reactions of people during the Middle Ages to the bubonic plague is imperative. Victims, friends, and family felt that death was inevitable, and reacted to the deadly disease in fear, desperation, and superstition. In the personal diary of Agnolo di Tura once said, "The mortality in Siena began in May. It was a cruel and horrible thing. It is impossible for the human tongue to recount the awful truth. Indeed one who did not see such horribleness can be called blessed. The victims died almost immediately. They would swell beneath the armpits and the groin, and fall over while talking. Father abandoned child, husband abandoned wife. None could be found to bury the dead for love or money. And they died by the hundreds both day and night; all were thrown in ditches and covered with dirt. All believed it was the end of the world." The fear that families had can be felt in Agnolo's writing many people shared these feelings during the middle ages, but primarily the people that were less fortun
de Rochas portrayed in his book The Reform of Medicine just how desperate people were for answers to this provocative nuisance. Those that survived were the chosen people, the ones who abided by the laws of the Church. hiring laborers became much more expensive. Giovanni Sercambi illustrates that death and disease were pouring and striking them down. Many died of hunger in their own houses. Some blamed invisible particles carried by the wind, others talk of poisoned wells within all this superstition no one had guessed that it was a simple strain of bacteria. "Plague-stricken patients hang around their necks toads, either dead or alive, whose venom should within a few days draw out the poison of the disease. And they helped others for pay by the job or by the day. One German physician during 1583 named Johann Weyer wrote in The Deceptions of Demons "About 40 people at Casale smeared the bolts of the town gates with an ointment to spread the plague. They were men who did public panance and scourged themselves with whips of hard knotted leather with little iron spikes. " This lack of peasants and laborers sent wages soaring, for the first time in history the scales tipped against the wealthy landlords as peasants and serfs gained more bargaining power. The plague was not prejudice to race, religion, sex or economic background. Reactions to the plague was ironic because although it was by far the deadliest disease at that time nobody could find how to cure it. One being that of religion and punishment from the divine, others were incorrect scientific reasoning and blame of ethnicity.
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