In about 1575-6, Mexico was struck by the worst epidemic, the region had ever known. Witnesses there at the time spoke of half or even two thirds of the population succumbing – a higher mortality rate even than the Black Death. The Spanish physicians did not recognise any of the European diseases with which theyContinue reading “Cocolitzli – the Great Plague – Mexico 1576 A.D.”
Tag Archives: Black Death
Theriac – a Very Sovereign Remedy for the Plague – Galen c.166-170 A.D.
Theriac – the origin of our word treacle – is a complex medicine, some of the recipes for which sound like the witches’ incantation in Macbeth: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake….. One version requiredContinue reading “Theriac – a Very Sovereign Remedy for the Plague – Galen c.166-170 A.D.”
Ibn al-Wardi – On the Advance of Plague – 1348
Ibn al-Wardi (1292-1348/9) was a Syrian historian and geographer. The Plague frightened and killed. It began in the land of darkness. Oh, what a visitor! It has been current for fifteen years. China was not preserved from it nor could the strongest fortress hinder it. The plague afflicted the Indians in India. It weighed uponContinue reading “Ibn al-Wardi – On the Advance of Plague – 1348”
John of Burgundy: Advice for Avoiding the Black Death – 1365
Not surprisingly, a vast number of treatises on the plague, in many tongues, were written in response to the Black Death. One of the earliest was by John of Burgundy, of whom almost nothing is known. It was translated into various languages and widely diffused. The following short section offers advice and, because of theContinue reading “John of Burgundy: Advice for Avoiding the Black Death – 1365”
Boccaccio Describes the Black Death Florence – 1348
I had not planned to include the Preamble to the Decameron, because it is so well known, but three friends on three different continents wanted it, so here it is: Here begins the First Day of the Decameron, in which, when the author has explained how the characters, who will appear later, met together forContinue reading “Boccaccio Describes the Black Death Florence – 1348”
Cambridge and the Plague
A friend kindly reminded me that his college, Trinity Hall (1350), as well as Gonville Hall (1348), Corpus Christi (1352) and Clare Hall (1359), were founded in a large part to remedy the terrible lack of clergy, nearly half of whom had died in the Black Death. Although I could not find a first personContinue reading “Cambridge and the Plague”
Miss Tully: Letters from Tripoli during the plague epidemic of 1785-6 – January 18th
January 18th, 1786 Their troubles are compounded by a plague of locusts We have at this time such a scarcity of wheat, that the Christians are glad to buy up all the biscuit from the ships in the harbour; and if the plague had not swept off the chief part of the inhabitants, theyContinue reading “Miss Tully: Letters from Tripoli during the plague epidemic of 1785-6 – January 18th”
Plague Anthology 