MST202H1 Lecture 4: The Black Death (Lecture 4) Notes
7 Feb 2019
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); not enough evidence for one clear mechanism that led to its spread. Louis sanctus: uses a climate analogy (thunder, views it as contagious; traces it to a shipment (at genoa from along silk road) History: 1340s: mongol khanate, 1347: black sea port of kaffa, genoese trading colony, 1347-48: genoese trading network -> mediterranean cities -> europe. Influences of planets, constellations, and comets: divine punishment for human sin, air pollution ( exhalations of the earth, contagion (spread through breath, touch, etc. , human malice (e. g. jewish communities blamed for plague) Individual ill health (unbalanced humours: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, black bile) Giovanni boccaccio: considered the plague contagious; transferred from person to person, tells a tale about pigs who get infected from rags of a victim, and immediately die. Lisan al-din ibn al-khatib: religious people did not approve of the idea of contagion; they thought that this went against the idea of divine punishment, al-khatib argued in favour of contagion.
