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Article: Plagues, healers and patients in early modern Europe.
- Article from:
- Renaissance Quarterly
- Article date:
- June 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Renaissance Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The pandemic that descended upon western Europe in 1347 and continued virtually unbroken through the end of the seventeenth century has generated an enormous historical literature. Plagues were a constant presence in the lives of medieval and early modern people, causing fear, terror, and social disruption. Jean-Noel Biraben, in his monumental Les hommes et la peste en France et dans les pays europeens et mediterraneens (1975-1976), concluded that plague struck somewhere in Europe during every year, save only two, between 1347 and 1670.
What exactly was the agent that caused the Black Death and the succeeding epidemics of the late medieval and early modern ...