Black Death by Dr. Green

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was a devastating pandemic that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, resulting in a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that time. The disease was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which circulated among wild rodents and was transmitted to humans through infected rat fleas. The disease primarily affected lymph nodes, causing painful buboes to form in the groin, on the thigh, in the armpit, or on the neck, hence the name "bubonic" plague. The infection took three to five days to incubate in people before they fell ill, and another three to five days before, in 80% of the cases, the victims died.

Plague bacteria could also break out of the buboes and be carried by the bloodstream to the lungs, causing a variant of plague that is spread by contaminated droplets from the cough of patients, known as pneumonic plague.

The Black Death spread considerable distances by rat fleas on ships, and infected ship rats would often die, but their fleas would survive and find new rat hosts wherever they landed. The disease spread rapidly, with ships traveling at an average speed of around 40km a day, allowing the Black Death to move 600km in a fortnight by ship. The disease also spread by land, but at a much slower pace.

The Black Death had a profound impact on European society, leading to a significant decrease in population, de-urbanization, and a shift in cultural and artistic expressions. The devastation caused by the Black Death resulted in a macabre fascination with death and dying, which is reflected in the art and literature of the time, including works such as The Decameron by Boccaccio and Albrecht Dürer's famous etching, "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

The Black Death also led to extreme social phenomena, such as the rise of flagellants, who engaged in self-torture as a means of seeking divine favor and averting the spread of the disease. The pandemic had far-reaching consequences on the structure of medieval society, the economy, and religious institutions, and its impact continued to be felt for centuries.