The Black Death

1. Warm –UpWhat do you think these quotes are referring to and/or describing, why do you feel that way? • “Over and over, these men cry out against the weight of so many losses-not just a lover dead, but friends and friends of friends, dozens of them, until it seems that is all there is and all there ever will be.” • During , you're more tired than you've ever been. It's like a cloud passing over the sun, and suddenly you're out. You don't know how you'll answer the door when your groceries are delivered. But you also find that you're stronger than you've ever been. You're clear. Your mortality is at optimal distance, not up so close that it obscures everything else, but close enough to give you depth perception. Previously, it has taken you weeks, months, or years to discover the meaning of an experience. Now it's instantaneous.

2. The Black Death

3. Key questions There are 3 questions that will be asked during the course of the lesson; 1. What is the “Black Death”? 2. What caused the Black Death? 3. What were the consequences?

4. What is the Black Death?

5. The plague arrives December 1348 sailors/merchants leaving the Black Sea carry rats, fleas, and diseased men back to Italy. While on port the rats and fleas spread into the streets of Italy infecting many. The rodents and fleas migrate North engulfing most of Europe. Historians think that the plague arrived in England during the summer of 1348. During the following autumn it spread quickly through the south west. Few villages escaped. Churchyards were full with bodies. The plague spread quickly during the winter of 1348-1349 to the north of England. By 1350, nearly the whole of Britain was infected with the plague. At the end of 1350 nearly two and a half million people were dead!

6. The Path of the Plague • Erupted in Gobi Desert, late 1320’ • Reached the shores of Italy in 1348 • Spread in every direction, primarily westward

7. THE BLACK DEATH

8. 3 Forms of the Disease • Bubonic Plague. painful lymph node swellings, buboes • Septicemic Plague. also called “blood poisoning”, attacked the blood system • Pneumonic Plague. attacked the respiratory system

9. What were the symptoms of the plague?

10. The Symptoms Bulbous Septicemic Form:almost 100% mortality rate.

11. What Caused the Plague

12. Causes Overcrowding in cities and homes Poor sanitation in cities Widespread malnutrition led to poor health Poor hygiene

13. What caused the plague? The question that you are probably thinking is this; Q: Who or what caused the Black Death? A: This is your answer! The Oriental Rat Flea!

14. The Culprits

15. How was the plague transmitted? We now know that the most common form of the Black Death was the BUBONIC PLAGUE! This disease was spread by fleas which lived on the black rat. The fleas sucked the rat’s blood which contained the plague germs. When the rat died the fleas jumped on to humans and passed on the deadly disease.

17. Cures? • Medieval people did not know about germs causing disease. They did not understand that plague was spread by rats and fleas. They thought that people’s bodies were poisoned. • If the swellings burst and the poison came out people sometimes survived. It seemed sensible to draw out the poison.

18. From the Toggenburg Bible, 1411

19. Lancing a Buboe

20. Attempts to Stop the Plague “Leeching” A Doctor’s Robe

21. Attempts to Stop the Plague Flagellanti:Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!

22. Attempts to Stop the Plague Pogramsagainst the Jews “Golden Circle” obligatory badge

23. Efforts to stop the Plague • Quarantine was the best method • Avoiding the sick • The wealthy fled to the countryside • Pope Clement VI in Avignon sat between two large fires to breathe pure air. The plague bacillus is destroyed by heat, so this worked!

24. Medieval cure number 1 The swellings should be softened with figs and cooked onions. The onions should be mixed with yeast and butter. Then open the swellings with a knife.

25. Medieval cure number 2 Take a live frog and put its belly on the plague sore. The frog will swell up and burst. Keep doing this with further frogs until they stop bursting. Some people say that a dried toad will do the job better.

26. Other Cures • bathing in human urine • wearing of excrement • placing dead animals in homes • use of leeches (a worm-like animal that sucked out blood) • drinking molten gold (gold heated until it melted) and powdered emeralds (a green jewel)

36. What were the consequences?

37. Bubonic Plague/Black Death • 1/3 of Europe dies • Originates from Asia • Spread through the Black Sea • Arrives in Italy spreading North • Fire in London • Effects • Trade declines • Town pop. Falls • Farms abandoned • Feudalism destroyed • Church loses

38. THE BLACK DEATH REACTIONS • “Charity was dead” • “Dementia of despair” • Wrath of God • Debauchery, materialism, corruption • FLAGELLANTS • Jews as scapegoats

40. Consequences • In Art • In music • Culture turned morbid

41. Art and the Black Death

42. Medieval Art & the Plague Bring out your dead!

43. THE BLACK DEATH EFFECT ON ART • preoccupation with death • Danse Macabre (Dance of Death)

46. THE BLACK DEATH EFFECT ON ART • preoccupation with death • paintings Jan Van Eyck, The Last Judgement

47. Hieronymous Bosch, Paradise and Hell

48. Hieronymous Bosch, The Last Judgment

49. The Triumph of Death Brueghel “the Elder”

50. THE BLACK DEATH EFFECT ON ART • preoccupation with death • church frescoes Kermaria Church, France