The Black Death

by Philip Ziegler

  • Coulton. G. G. The Black Death, London, 1929.

  • Gasqute, F. A. The Great Pestilence, London, 1893. Reprinted substantially unrevised as The Black Death, London, 1908

  • Hecker. J. F. C. The epidemics of the Middle Ages, trad. Babington. London, 1859.

  • Hoeniger, R. Der Schwarze Tod in Deuuschland, Berlin. 1882.

  • Lechner, K. Das Grosse Sterben in Deutschland, Innsbruck, 1884

  • Nohl. J. Der Schwarze Tod, Potsdam, 1924.

  • Philippe, A. Histoire de la Peste Noire, Paris, 1853.

  • Sticker, G. Die Pest, Vol. 1, (‘Die Geschichte der Pest’), Giessen, 1908.

  More useful material on a national or international scale is often to be found in books not dealing exclusively with the Black Death (Coulton’s Mediaeval Panorama, for instance, contains more of value than his monograph mentioned above) or in more recent essays and articles. In this and subsequent sections I have marked with an asterisk sources of particularly valuable information.

  • Carpentier, E.* ‘Autour de la Peste Noire’, Annales E.S.C., 1962, XVII, p. 1062.

  • Coulton, G. G.* Mediaeval Panorama, Cambridge, 1938, Chap. 38.

  • Doren, A. Storia Economica dell’ Italia nel Medio Evo, Padua, 1937.

  • Duby, G. L’Économie rural et la vie des campagnes dans l’Occident médiéval, Paris, 1962.

  • Gwynn, A. ‘The Black Death in Ireland’, Studies, 1935, Vol. XXIV, p. 25.

  • Maycock, A. L. ‘A Note on the Black Death’, Nineteenth Century, 1925, Vol. XCVII, p. 456.

  • Rees, W.* ‘The Black Death in Wales’, Trans. Roy. Hist Soc., Fourth Series, 1920, Vol. III, p. 115.

  • Rees, W. ‘The Black Death in England and Wales as exhibited in Manorial Documents’, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. Vol. 16, Pt. 2, p. 27.

  • Renouard, Y.* ‘La Peste Noire,’ Revue de Paris, March 1950, p. 107.

  • Rogers, J. E. Thorold ‘England before and after the Black Death’, Fortnightly Review, 186s, Vol. III, p. 191.

  • Ruthven, O. History of Medieval Ireland, London, 1968.

  • Seebohm, F. ‘The Black Death, and its place in English History’, Fortnightly Review, 1865, Vol. II, pp. 149 and 268.

  • Seebohm, F. ‘The Population of England before the Black Death’, Fortnightly Review, 1866, Vol. IV, p. 87.

  • Verlinden, C. ‘La Grande Peste de 1348 en Espagne’, Revue belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 1938, XVII, p.103.

  Among works on epidemiology, medical history or bubonic plague, those of particular relevance to the Black Death are:

  • Anglada, A. Études sur les Maladies Éteintes, Paris, 1869.

  • Creighton, C. A History of Epidemics in Britain, Cambridge, 1891.

  • Greenwood,* Major Epidemics and Crowd Diseases, London, 1935.

  • Hirst, L.F.* The Conquest of Plague, Oxford, 1953.

  • John. F. M. The Block Death, London, 1920.

  • Liston, W. G. ‘The Plague’, Brit. Med. Journ., 1924, Vol. I, pp. 900, 950 and 997.

  • MacArthur, W. ‘Old Time Plague in Britain’, Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg., Vol. XIX, p. 355.

  • Mullett, C. F. The Bubonic Plague and England, Lexington, 1956.

  • Papon, J. P. De la Peste ou Epoques Mémorables de ce Fléau, Paris, 1800.

  • Pollitzer, R.* Plague, W.H.O., Geneva, 1954. Rebouis, H. E. Étude historique et critique sur la peste, Paris, 1888.

  • Singer, C. ‘A Review of the Medical Literature of the Dark Ages’, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.(Hist Med.), Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 107.

  • Zinsser, H. Rats, Lice and History, London, 1935.

  Innumerable studies exist dealing in whole or in part with the Black Death or its effects in specific towns or areas. Some of these, for instance Dr Carpentier’s study of Orvieto, are of the greatest importance; others contain little except an odd anecdote or two and some inaccurate statistics. All those cited below have contributed something of value to this book. The Victoria County Histories, though varying greatly in quality from county to county, are in general a source of much valuable material for England.

  • Allison, K. J. ‘The Lost Villages of Norfolk’, Norf. Arch., Vol. XXXI, 1955, p. 118.

  • Ballard, A. ‘The Manors of Witney, Brightwell and Downton’, Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, Vol. V, Oxford, 1916.

  • Bartlett. J. N. ‘The Expansion and Decline of York in the Later Middle Ages’, Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd Ser., Vol. XII, 1959, p. 17.

  • Bertrand, L. ‘Contribution à L’Étude de la Peste dans les Flandres’. Proc, 2nd. Int. Cong. Hist. Med., Evreux, 1922, p. 43.

  • Beveridge, W. ‘Wages in the Winchester Manors’, Econ. Hist Rev.,1936–7, Vol. VII, p. 22.

  • Beveridge, W. ‘Westminster Wages in the Manorial Era’, Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd Series, Vol. VIII, 1955, No. 1, p. 18.

  • Billson, C. J. Mediaeval Leicester, Leicester, 1920.

  • Boucher, C. E. ‘The Black Death in Bristol’, Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc., Vol. LX, 1938.

  • Bowsky, W. M. ‘The Impact of the Black Death upon Sienese Government and Society’, Speculum, Vol. XXXIX, 1964, No. 1, p. 1.

  • Brunetti. ‘Venezia durante la Peste’, Ateneo Veneto, 32, 1909.

  • Buess, H. ‘Die Pest in Basel im 14 und 15 Jahrhundert’, Basel Jahrbuch, 1956.

  • Carpentier, E.* Une Ville devant la Peste. Orvieto et la Peste Noire de 1348, Paris, 1962.

  • Chiappelli, A.* ‘Gli Ordinamenti Sanitari del Comune de Pistoia contra la Peste de 1348’, Arch. Stor. Ital., Ser. IV, Vol. XX, p. 3.

  • Davenport, F. The Economic Development of a Norfolk Manor, 1086–1565, Cambridge, 1906.

  • Dubled, H. ‘Aspects économiques de la vie de Strasbourg aux 13e et 14e siècles, Archives del’Église d’Alsace, N.S., VI, 1955, No. 1, p. 18.

  • Dubled, H. ‘Conséquences économiques et sociales des “mortalitiés” du XIVe siècle essentiellement en Alsace’, Revue d’Hist. Écon. et Soc. Vol. XXXVII, 1959, No. 3, p. 273.

  • Emery, R. ‘The Black Death of 1348 in Perpignan’, Speculum, Vol. XLII, 1967, No. 4, p. 611.

  • Feiling, K. G. ‘An Essex Manor in the 14th Century’, Eng. Hist. Rev., Vol. XXVI, 1911, p. 333.

  • Fisher, J. L. ‘The Black Death in Essex’, Essex Review, Vol. LII, 1943.

  • Fletcher, J. M. ‘The Black Death in Dorset’, Dorset Nat. Hist. Ant Field Club., Vol. XLIII, 1922, p. 1.

  • France, R. S. ‘A History of Plague in Lancashire’, Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanes and Cheshire, Liverpool, 1938, Vol. 90, p. 1.

  • Hamilton Thompson, A.* ‘The Pestilences of the 14th Century in the Diocese of York’, Arch. Journ., Vol. 71, 1914, p. 97.

  • Hamilton Thompson, A.* ‘Registers of John Gynewell, Bishop of Lincoln, for the years 1347–50’, Arch.Journ.,Vol. 68, 1911, p. 302.

  • Harvey, P. D. A. A Mediaeval Oxfordshire Village; Cuxham, Oxford, 1965.

  • Herlihy, Dr.* ‘Population, Plague and Social Change in Rural Pistoia’, Econ. Hist. Rev.,2nd Series, 1965, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, p. 225.

  • Hewitt, H. J. Mediaeval Cheshire, Manchester, 1929.

  • Hill, I. W. F. Mediaeval Lincoln, Cambridge, 1948. Hilton, R. H. The Economic Development of Some Leicestershire Estates in the 14th and 15th Centuries, Oxford, 1947.

  • Hoskins, W. G. Devon, London, 1954.

  • Jessop, A. ‘The Black Death in East Anglia’, The Coming of the Friars and other Historic Essays, London, 1894.

  • Levett, A. E.* ‘The Black Death on the Estates of the See of Winchester’, Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, Vol. V, Oxford, 1916.

  • Lopez de Meneses, A.* ‘Documentos acerca de la peste negra en los dominios de la Corona de Aragon’, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Escuela de Estudios Mediaevales, Vol. VI, 1956, p. 291.

  • Lopez de Meneses, A. ‘Una Consecuencia de la Peste Negra en Cataluña: El Pogrom de 1348’, Sefarad, Vol. 19, 1959, p. 92.

  • Mollat, M. �
��La Mortalité à Paris’, MoyenAge,Vol. 69, 1963, p. 505.

  • Nathan, M. The Annals of West Coker, Cambridge, 1957.

  • Page, F. M. The Estates of Cropland Abbey, Cambridge, 1934.

  • Porquet, L. La Peste en Normandie, Vire, 1898.

  • Prat, G. ‘Albi et la Peste Noire’, Annalesdu Midi, LXIV, 1952, p. 15.

  • Raftis, J. A. Estates of Ramsey Abbey, Toronto, 1957.

  • Reincke, H. ‘Bevölkerungsverluste der Hansestädte durch den Schwarzen Tod’, Hansische Geschichtsblätter, Vol. 72, 1954, p. 88.

  • Riley, H. T. Memorials of London and London Life, London, 1868.

  • Robo, E. ‘The Black Death in the Hundred of Farnham’, Eng. Hist. Rev., Vol. XLIV, 1929, p. 560.

  • Roucaud, J. La Pesteà Toulouse,Toulouse, 1918.

  • Saunders, H. W. An Introduction to the Obedientiary and Manor Rolls of Norwich Cathedral Priory, Norwich, 1930.

  • Smyth, J. ‘The Lives of the Berkeleys’, Bristoland Glos.Arch. Soc, Gloucester, 1883.

  • Wickersheimer, E. ‘La Peste Noire à Strasbourg et le Régime des cinq médecins strasbourgeois’, Proc. 3rd Int. Cong. Hist. Med., Antwerp, 1923, p. 54.

  • Williamson, R. ‘The Plague in Cambridge’, Med.Hist., 1957, I (1), p.51.

  It would be absurd to attempt to list all the general works on the period which have contributed something to this book; equally it would be churlish not to mention at least:

  • Bennett, H. S. Life on the English Manor, Cambridge, 1956

  • Bridbury, A. R. Economic Growth: England in the later Middle Ages, London, 1962.

  • Cambridge Economic History, Vols. 1 to 4. In particular Professor Postan’s and Professor Glenicot’s contributions to the second edition (1966) of Vol. I.

  • Cambridge Mediaeval History, Vol. III, Cambridge, 1932.

  • Huizinga, J. The Waning of the Middle Ages, London, 1924.

  • Jusserand, J. J. English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages, London, 1891.

  • Knowles, Dom. D. The Religious Orders in England, Vol. II. Cambridge, 1955.

  • Lea, H. C. A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, New York, 1887–8.

  • Levett, A. E. Studies in Manorial History, Oxford, 1938.

  • Lipson, E. The Economic History of England, London, 1945. McKisack, M. The Fourteenth Century, Oxford, 1959.

  • Pirenne, H. Economic and Social History of Mediaeval Europe, trans. I. E. Clegg, London, 1936.

  • Rogers, J. E. Thorold A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Vol. 1, Oxford, 1866.

  • Six Centuries of Work and Wages, London, 1906.

  • Simonde de Sismondi, J. Histoire des Républiques Italiennes du Moyen Age, Vol. VI, Paris, 1826.

  There are a large number of additional studies which illuminate one aspect or another of the Black Death. It would in some ways have been desirable to sub-divide them further into groups such as ‘economic effects’ or ‘anti-semitism’ but this could only be done at the expense of a comprehensive and easily consulted list of authors and I have therefore decided to lump all the remaining texts, except those of the contemporary chroniclers and tractators, in a single category. This list does not contain books, cited in the notes, which deal with the Black Death only indirectly yet contribute something to the general picture.

  • Allyn, H. M. ‘The Black Death. Its Social and Economic Results’, Annals of Medical History, Vol. VII, 1925, p. 226.

  • Baehrel, M. ‘Épidémie et Terreur: histoire et sociologie’, Annales Hist de la Rev. Fran., XXIII, 1951, p. 113.

  • Baehrel, M. ‘La Haine de Classe en temps d’épidémie’, Annales E.S.C, VII, 1952, No. 2, p. 351.

  • Bean, J. M. W. ‘Plague, Population and Economic Decline in England in the Later Middle Ages’, Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd Series, Vol. XV, 1963, p. 423.

  • Beresford, M. The Lost Villages of England, London, 1954.

  • Campbell, A.* The Black Death and Men of Learning, New York, 1931. Crawfurd, R. Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art, Oxford, 1914.

  • Cohn, N.* The Pursuit of the Millennium, London, 1957.

  • D’Irsay, S. ‘The Black Death and the Mediaeval Universities’, Annals of Medical History, Vol. VII, 1925, p. 220.

  • D’Irsay, S. ‘Notes to the Origin of the Expression: Atra Mors’, Isis, Vol. 8, 1926, p. 328.

  • D’Irsay, S.* ‘Defence Reactions during the Black Death’, Annals of Medical History, Vol. IX, 1927, p. 169.

  • Febvre, L. ‘La Peste Noire de 1348’, Annales E.S.C, IV, 1949, No. 1, p. 102.

  • Gray, H. L. ‘The Commutation of Villein Services in England before the Black Death’, Eng. Hist. Rev., Vol. XXIX, 1914, p. 625.

  • Guerchberg, S. ‘La Controverse sur les Prétendus Semeurs de la Peste Noire d’après les traités de peste de l’époque’, Revue des Études Juives, Vol. 8, 1948, p.3.

  • Hare, R. Pomp and Pestilence, London, 1954.

  • Holmes, G. A. The Estates of the Higher Nobility in Fourteenth Century England, Cambridge, 1957.

  • Hoskins, W. G. The Making of the English Landscape, London, 1955.

  • Jeanselme, M. E. ‘Inondations, Famines et Tremblements de Terre sont les avant-coureurs de la Peste’, Proc. 3rd Int. Cong. Hist. Med., 1923.

  • Kelter, E.* ‘Das Deutsche Wirtschaftsleben des 14 und 15 Jahrhunderts im Schatten der Pestepidemien’, Jahrbürcher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik’, Vol. 165, 1953, p. 161.

  • Kjennerud, I. R. ‘Black Death’, Journ. Hist. Med., Vol. 3, 1948. p. 359.

  • Kosminsky, E. A Studies in the Agrarian History of England in the 13th Century, Oxford, 1956.

  • Langer, W. L.* ‘The Next Assignment’, American Hist. Rev., Vol. LXIII, 1958 No. 2, p. 283.

  • Lutge, F. ‘Das 14/15 Jahrhundert in der Sozial und Wirtschaftsgeschichte’, Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Vol. 161, 1950, p. 161.

  • Meiss, M.* Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death, Princeton, 1951.

  • Michon, L. A. J.* ‘Documents inédits sur la Grande Peste de 1348’, Theses de l’Écolede Médicine, Vol. VI, Paris, 1860.

  • Mode, P. Influence of the Black Death on English Monasteries, Chicago, 1916.

  • Mollaret, H. H. and Brossolet, J. La Peste, Source Méconnue d’Inspiration Artistique, Paris (Institut Pasteur), 1965.

  • Page, T. W. ‘The End of Villainage in England’, Pub. Amer. Econ.Assoc., Third Series, 1900, Vol. I.

  • Parkes, J. The Jew in the Mediaeval Community, London, 1938.

  • Perdrizet, P. La Peinturereligieuse en Italic jusqu’ à la findu XIVe Siècle, Nancy, 1905. Perdrizet, P. La Viergede Miséricorde, Paris, 1908.

  • Postan, M.* ‘Some Economic Evidence of Declining Population in the Later Middle Ages’, Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd Ser., Vol. II, 1950, p. 221.

  • Power, E. ‘The Effects of the Black Death on Rural Organization in England’, History, N.S., Vol. III, 1918, p. 109.

  • Putnam, B. H. The Enforcement of the Statute of Labourers, New York, 1908.

  • Renouard, Y.* ‘Conséquences et intérêt démographique de la Peste Noire de 1348’, Population, III, 1948, p. 459.

  • Réville, A. Le Soulèvement des travailleurs d’Angleterre en 1381, introduction by C. Petit-Dutaillis, Paris, 1898.

  • Robbins, H. ‘A Comparison of the Effects of the Black Death on the Economic Organization of France and England’, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. XXXVI, 1928, p. 447.

  • Roberts, R. S. ‘The Place of Plague in English History’, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. (Hist. Med), Vol. 59, 1966, p. 101.

  • Russell, J. C.* British Mediaeval Population, Albuquerque, 1948.

  • Russell, J. S. ‘Effects of Pestilence and Plague, 1315–85’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. VIII, 1966, No. 4, p. 464.

  • Saltmarsh, J. ‘Plague and Economic Decline in England in the Later Middle Ages’, Camb. Hist. Journ., Vol. VII, 1941, No. 1, p. 23.

  �
� Siegfried, A. Itinéraines des contagions: épidémies et idéologies, Paris, 1960.

  • Thompson, J. W ‘The Aftermath of the Black Death and the Aftermath of the Great War’, American journal of Sociology, 1920/21, Vol. XXVI.

  • Thrupp, S. L. ‘The Problem of Replacement Rates in Late Mediaeval English Population’, Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd Series, Vol. XVIII, 1965, p. 101.

  • Thrupp, S. L. ‘Plague Effects in Mediaeval Europe’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. VIII, 1966, No. 4, p. 482.

  • Titow, J. Z. ‘Some Evidence of the 13th Century Population Increase’, Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd Series, Vol. XIV, 1961, No. 2, p. 218.

  • Tononi, A. G. ‘La Peste dell’ Anno 1348’, Giornale Ligustico, Genoa, Vol. X, 1883, p. 139.

  • Wilson, E. M. Carus Mediaeval Merchant Venturers, London, 1954.

  The most important contemporary or near-contemporary texts, listed under the country of the chronicler, are as follows:

  Italy

  • Cronica Senese di Agnolo di Tura del Grasso, Muratori, Return ItalicarumScriptores,15, VI, pp.555–7.

  • Storie Pistoresi, Muratori, 11, V, pp.23 5–8.

  • Gabriel de Mussis, Historia de Morbo s. Mortalitate quae fuit Anno Dni MCCCXLVII, ed. Henschel; Haeser’s Archiv, für die Gesammte Medizin, II, 1842, pp.26–59 (cf. V. J. Derbes, ‘De Mussis and the Great Plague of 1348’, J.A.M.A., Vol. 196, 1966, No. 1.)

  • Chronicon Estense, Muratori, 15, III, pp. 159–64.

  • Michael Platiensis, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Qui Res In Sicilia Gestas Retulere, Vol. 1, p. 562.

  • Lorenzo de Monaci, Chronicon de Rebus Venetorum, Venice, 1758.

  • Peter Azarius, Muratori, XVI, p. 16.

  • Cronica Florentine di Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, Muratori, 30, I.

  • Cronica de Giovanni Villani, ed. Dragomanni, Florence, 1845.

  • Cronica di Matteo Villani, ed. Dragomanni, Florence, 1846.

  • Monumenta Pisana, Muratori, XV (1729 edition), p.1021.

  • Cronicon Gestorum ac Factorum Memorabilium civitatis Bononie, Muratori, 28, III, p. 43.

  Germany

  • Matthaie Neuwenburgensis, Cronica, Fontes Rerum Germanicarum (F.R.G.), ed. Boehmer, Stuttgart, 1868, pp. 261–7; cf. Mon. Germ. Hist., N.S., Vol. IV, Berlin, 1936.