Episode Nine: The Black Death, a.k.a The Big Dying

Plague victim burials in Tournai, from ‘The Chronicles of Gilles Li Muisis’ (1349). Source: Bibliothèque royale de Belgique.

In the Sicilian port city of Messina, Genoese ships began arriving from the East in 1347 sailed by crews either dead or dying. From there, a terrible and unknown disease swiftly spread through Europe. Whole families or towns could be decimated in a matter of weeks. For the people of the 14th century it looked like the end of the world had come.

In this episode, hosts Ana and Luca explore the myths and truths of the Great Mortality, known better as the Black Death – one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

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Thanks as always to our composer and producer Marlon Grunden, who you can find at his website here.

Sources and Further Reading

• John Kelly, The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death

• Norman F. Cantor, In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made

• J. N. Hays, The Burdens of Disease: Epidemics and Human Response in Western History

• Frank M. Snowden, Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present

• Philip Ziegler, The Black Death

• Benedict Gummer, The Scourging Angel: The Black Death in the British Isles