ickly spreading disease, four Genoese ships, thought to be untainted, departed from Kaffa and they sailed home to Italy (Gottfried p.35).
             And this is how the Plague reached Italy; no single event in all of medieval Europe was as horrifying or as devastating. Every individual was touched by it in some frightful manner: those who did not suffer from the disease themselves fled from it in terror as their loved ones died. Adding to the misery was an unsettling mystery: the people of the Middle Ages had no way of knowing what caused the disease. They only knew it killed horribly, that it spread with frightening speed, and that no one, neither royalty nor peasant, rich merchant nor lowly servant, was immune.
             The Plague itself was presented in four interrelated forms. The bubonic variant (the most common) derives from the swellings or buboes that appeared on a victim's neck, armpit or groin. These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple. Although some survived the painful ordeal, the manifestation of these legions usually signaled the victim had a life expectancy of up to a week. Infected fleas that attached themselves to rats and then to humans usually spread this bubonic type of the plague.
             A second variation, pneumatic plague, attacked the respiratory system and was spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a victim. It was much more virulent than its bubonic cousin; life expectancy was measured in one or two days.
             The third type, the septicemic version of the disease would befall when the contagion poisoned the victim's bloodstream. Victims of Septicemic Plague died the most swiftly, often before any notable symptoms had a chance to develop.
             Finally, Enteric Plague, attacked the victim's digestive system, but it too killed the patient too swiftly for diagnosis of any kind (Strayer p.257-267).
             What was it like for a victim of the plague? It started with a headache. Then the...