Since the reign of Emperor Justinian in 542 A.D., man has one unwelcome organism along for the ride, Yersinia pestis. This is the bacterium more commonly know as the Black Death, the plague. Plague is divided into three biotypes, each associated with one of three major pandemics occurring in history...

Florence During the Renaissance The Plague in Italy (Florence) 1348 In the year 1348 AD, an enemy quite unexpected and very uncontrollable came to the shores of Italy. It struck viscously and quickly, by the time this enemy had left more than half of the population of Italy was dead. This ...

Bubonic Plague " I buried with my own hands five of my children in a single grave. No bells. No tears. This is the end of the world." (Deaux, 1969) These are the words of Italian author Agniol di Tura, but they reflect the emotions of an entire nation in the 1300's. It was at...

In 1348, in the major Trade City of Florence, a ship from China docked on the port carrying the rat that would lead Europe through one of the greatest epidemics ever known to man, the Black Death. The virulent plague quickly claimed the lives of a third of the population. There was no escape, as ...