The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe (Arnold Publication) - Softcover

Cohn Jr., Samuel K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340706473 ISBN 13: 9780340706473

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2003

Synopsis

The Black Death in Europe, from its arrival in 1347-52 through successive waves into the early modern period, has been seriously misunderstood. It is clear from the compelling evidence presented in this revolutionary account that the Black Death was almost any disease other than the rat-based bubonic plague whose bacillus was discovered in 1894. Since the late nineteenth century, the rat and flea have stood wrongly accused as the agents of transmission and historians and scientists have uncritically imposed the epidemiology of modern plague on the past. Unshackled from this misconception, The Black Death Transformed turns to its subject afresh, using sources spread across a huge geographical tract, from Lisbon to Uzbekistan, Sicily to Scotland: more than 40,000 death documents (from last wills and testaments to the earliest surviving burial records), over 400 chronicles, 250 plague tracts, 50 saints' lives, merchant letters, and much more. These sources confirm the terror of the medieval plague, the rapidity of its spread (unlike modern plague), and the utter despondency left in the wake of its first strike. But they also point to significant differences between medieval and modern plague, none more significant than the ability of humans to acquire natural immunity to the former but not the latter.

About this title

Review:

This is a book without comparison. Cohn has successfully undertaken the formidable task of dealing with a major and controversial topic over a vast period of time and within a geographical area that stretches from England to India. Well-conceived, imaginative, and strongly argued, The Black Death Transformed is a definitive work on an important and much studied subject and will remain so for a long time. (William M. Bowsky, Professor Emeritus, University)

Finally, here is a book that examines original sources throughout Europe to challenge convincingly the age-old paradigm of the Black Death as bubonic plague. (Dr John Henderson, Wolfson College, Cambridge)

...delightfully readable. Conveys an ambitious and ultimately convincing argument in precise, often amusing prose. Cohn displays a combination of academic rigour and the ability to render the complex intriguing. (The Independent)

...a fascinating account. (New Scientist)

The impressive level of primary and secondary research, will make this well written and readable work impossible for historians to ignore. Highly recommended. (CHOICE 2003-04-25)

Well-conceived and well-argued, The Black Death Transformed will remain an important work for many years to come. (International Journal of Epidemiology 2003-02-25)

A penetrating and exhuastive study.... (History of Medicine 2002-10-11)

About the Author:

Samuel K. Cohn, Jr. - Professor of Medieval History, University of Glasgow, UK.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0340706473
• ISBN 13: 9780340706473
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 330