Diseases and Black Death

Diseases during the Middle Ages

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Objectives

Find out information about the Black Death in England and its consequences

Find out information about the medical system during the Middle Ages

The Black Death

Document 1

Matthias Grünewald, detail from The Temptation of St Anthony (c. 1512)

The Black Death

Document 2

The sailors brought in their bones a disease so violent that whoever spoke a word to them was infected and could in no way save himself from death... Those to whom the disease was transmitted by infection of the breath were stricken with pains all over the body and felt a terrible lassitude. There then appeared, on a thigh or an arm, a pustule like a lentil. From this the infection penentrated the body and violent bloody vomiting began. It lasted for a period of three days and there was no way of preventing its ending in death.

Michele di Piazze, letter (October, 1347)

The Black Death

Document 3

If an ulcer appears... near the ear or the throat, take blood from the arm on that side, that is, from the vein between the thumb and the first finger... But if you have an ulcer in the groin, then open a vein in the foot between the big toe and its neighbour... At all events, bloodletting should be carried out when the plague first strikes.

Letter sent by a group of doctors from Oxford to the Lord Mayor of London (c. 1350)

The Black Death

Document 4

Dance of Death (1492)

The Black Death

Document 5

The King of Tharsis, seeing so sudden and unheard of death among his subjects, set out with a large number of nobles towards the Pope... He proposed to be baptised a Christian, believing that God's vengeance had fallen upon his people by reason of their evil lack of faith. But, after twenty days' journey, hearing that the plague had created a great havoc among Christians... turned and went no farther on that way, but hastened home unto his own country.

Henry Knighton, Chronicle (c. 1398)

The Black Death

Document 6

It first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumours in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg... merely by speech or association with the sick was the disease communicated to the healthy... any that touched the clothes of the sick... seemed to catch the disease... Many died daily or nightly in the public streets. Of many others, who died at home, the departure was hardly observed by their neighbours, until the stench of the bodies carried the news.

Some did not shut themselves in, but went about, some carrying flowers in their hands, some fragrant herbs... which they frequently smelled, thinking it good to comfort the brain with such odours.

Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron (c. 1360)

The Black Death

Document 7

Woodcut, The Child (c.1524)

The Black Death

Document 8

In the year 1350, there was, in the kingdom of Scotland, a great plague... nearly a third of mankind died... By God's will, this evil led to a strange kind of death, insomuch that the flesh of the sick was somehow puffed out and swollen... Now this attacked everywhere, especially the common people - seldom the magnates.

John Fordun, Chronicle of the Scottish Nation (c. 1380)

The Black Death

Document 9

A medicine for the plague... Take an egg that is newly laid, and make a hole in either end, and blow out all that is within. And lay it to the fire and let it roast till it may be ground to powder, but do not burn it. Then take a quantity of good treacle, and mix it with chives and good ale. And then make the sick drink it for three evenings and three mornings.

Edward IV's Plague Medicines (c. 1480)

The Black Death

Document 10

Michael Wolgemut, Dance of Death (1493)

The Black Death

Document 11

In 1349 over six hundred men came to London from Flanders... Each wore a cap marked with a red cross in front and behind. Each had in his right hand a scourge with three nails. Each tail had a knot and through the middle of it there were sometimes sharp nails fixed. They marched naked in a file one behind the other and whipped themselves with these scourges on their naked bleeding bodies.

Robert of Avesbury, Chronicle (c. 1360)

The Black Death

Document 12

Woodcut (c. 1480)

The Black Death

Document 13

The plague... has left many parish churches... without parson or priest to care for their parishioners... Therefore, to provide for the salvation of souls... you should at once publicly command and persuade all men that, if they are on the point of death and cannot secure the services of a priest, then they should make confession to each other... if no man is present, then even to a woman.

Ralph of Shrewsbury, the Bishop of Bath, wrote a letter about the Black Death to all the priests in his diocese in January 1349.

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 1

Manuscript painting of a leper (c. 1400)

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 2

During very hot weather phlebotomy (blood-letting) should not be undertaken because humours flow out quickly as the bad. Nor should phlebotomy be done in very cold weather, because the good humours are compacted in the body and difficult to draw out, and the good came out quicker than the bad... If the blood appears black, draw it off until it becomes red. If it is thick, until it thins out: if watery, until it becomes thick... Phlebotomy clears the mind, strengthens the memory, cleanses the stomach, sharpens the hearing, develops the senses, promotes digestion, produces a musical voice, feeds the blood, rids it of poisonous matter, and brings long life. It gets rid of diseases, cures pains, fevers and various sicknesses.

Manuscript giving instructions for doctors (c. 1230)

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 3

Leprosy became highly stigmatized. They were forbidden all normal social contacts and became targets of shocking rites of exclusion. They could not marry, they were forced to dress distinctively and to sound a bell warning of their approach.... They were segregated in special houses outside towns... Leprosy provided a prism for Christian thinking about disease. No less a religious than a medical diagnosis, it was associated with sin, particularly lust, reflecting the assumption it was spread by sex.

Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind (1997)

The Black Death

Document 4

Michael Wolgemut, Dance of Death (1493)

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 5

The knowledge of anatomy is acquired in two ways; one is by books... the second way is by dissecting dead bodies, namely, of those who have been recently beheaded or hanged. By this means we learn the anatomy of the internal organs, the muscles, skin, veins and sinews.

Guy de Chauliac, Surgery (c. 1380)

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 6

Illustration from Gerrssdorf's Field Book of Surgery (1517)

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 7

When passing along the Thames, we have seen dung and other filth piled up in several places. We have also noticed the fumes and other terrible stenches... To preserve the honour of the City, we command that you cause the banks of the river and the streets and lanes of the city to be cleansed of dung and other filth without delay. And public proclamation is to be made that no one shall place dung or filth in the streets and lanes.

Letter from Edward III to the Mayor of London (1357)

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 8

So much dung and filth... as well as dead beasts... are in the ditches, rivers and other waters... the air is greatly corrupt... Many intolerable diseases do daily happen... to the great annoyance, damage and peril of the inhabitants, dwellers, repairers and travellers... All dung, garbage, entrails and other odour in ditches, rivers, waters... shall be removed and carried away... upon pain to lose and forfeit to our Lord the King £20.

Law passed by King Richard II in 1388

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 9

Woodcut, The Child (c.1524)

Medicine during the Middle Ages

Document 10

All the streets of London are so badly paved that they get wet at the slightest quantity of water, and this happens very frequently... on account of the rain, of which there is a great deal in this island. Then a vast amount of evil-smelling mud is formed, which does not disappear quickly but lasts a long time, in fact nearly the whole year round.

Andreas Franciscius, Journey to England (1497)

Congratulations