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Article: Medieval leprosy reconsidered.(1000 to 1300 A.D.)
- Article from:
- International Social Science Review
- Article date:
- March 22, 2006
- Author:
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Historians recognize that during the High Middle Ages--from shortly after 1000 to 1300 A.D.--Western Europe experienced a period of unparalleled growth. Populations tripled; first schools and then universities flourished; new cathedrals rose up in many cities; and, commerce and manufacturing had been revitalized on the Italian peninsula and gradually spread throughout Western Europe. Ironically, this period also witnessed an unprecedented outbreak of leprosy in the region, a disease that could be horribly disfiguring, but fortunately did not have a significant impact on demographic growth.
This leprosy "epidemic" and the attempts of Latin Christian society (Roman ...