"A Plague on Bohemia? Mapping the Black Death.” Past and Present 211 (2011): 3-34. (original) (raw)
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This study was created as part of the project Strategy AV 21 No. 23 "The city as a laboratory of change: Buildings, cultural heritage and environment for a safe and valuable life", developed at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, v.v.i. IMPACTS OF THE PLAGUE EPIDEMIC ON THE KINGDOM OF BOHEMIA… 45 statistics alone cannot capture the mental changes that pandemics cause in human society. The civilization of the twenty-first century believes in progress, in extensive growth, in prosperity, the contours of which appear rosy on the horizon in the near term. And that is why the COVID-19 epidemic caused such a shock. Only the darkest of visionaries imagined that cross-border travel would stop, that hospitals would be filled beyond capacity, and that thousands of people would die in isolation, without the presence of loved ones. In Europe, no one thought that governments would regulate the movement of populations, that they would close all shops except the most necessary food and drugstores for several weeks, that production lines would be stopped, that relatives would not be able to visit, and that all culture and sports would go into hibernation. Repeatedly turning off the lights and then trying to turn the lights on again after a few weeks proved to be effective, although the disease did not disappear. However, with the turning on of the lights, many social and psycho-social problems have emerged that people will have to deal with for decades. Nevertheless, a glimpse into the past shows that even without modern technology, pre-modern society soon learned to live with epidemics. In the case of bacterial plague, that coexistence lasted for hundreds of years and claimed the lives of millions of people. At the same time, historical experience teaches us that it is not possible to prepare for epidemics, that there are very few ways to delay or alleviate them, and that the most important thing is to learn to coexist with them. Although the medieval plague epidemic had a global impact, its intensity varied from region to region in Europe. Plague rates as well as mortality rates were conditioned by climatic and geographical conditions, population density, migration and trade activities, as well as by nutritional opportunities and mental or cultural habits. If we look at Europe as a whole, then the Czech lands, the Bohemian Kingdom, and the Moravian Margraviate were among areas much less affected by plague epidemics in the XIV th and XV th centuries than medieval France, England, Italy, or the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire 2. The causes of the lower intensity of the plague epidemic in Bohemia and Moravia can be seen in all of the aspects mentioned above, which does not, however, mean that the impact of the plague epidemic in the Kingdom of Bohemia was not in some regards comparable to that in Western Europe. Research on the medieval plague epidemic in Bohemia and Moravia has struggled with a lack of relevant sources from the very beginning 3. However, this fact 2 From classical works cf.
Studia Historica Gedanensia, 2021
Although the medieval plague epidemic had a global impact, its intensity varied from region to region in Europe. Plague rates as well as mortality rates were conditioned by climatic and geographical conditions, population density, migration, and trade activities, as well as nutritional opportunities and mental or cultural habits. If we look at Europe as a whole, then the Czech lands, the Bohemian Kingdom and the Moravian Margraviate were among the areas affected by plague epidemics in the XIVth and XVth centuries much less than medieval France, England, Italy, or the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire. The causes of the lower intensity of the plague epidemic in Bohemia and Moravia can be seen in all of the aspects mentioned above, which does not, however, mean that the impact of the plague epidemic in the Kingdom of Bohemia was not, in some regards, comparable to that in Western Europe. Research on the medieval plague epidemic in Bohemia and Moravia has struggled with a lack of r...
The Black Death in the Kingdom of Hungary: Sources, Limitations, Interpretations
Historical Studies on Central Europe, 2024
Western scholarship has studied the mid-fourteenth-century cataclysm of the Black Death for centuries. In contrast, due to the limited number of contemporary narrative sources, in East Central Europe, until recently historians discussed it only marginally. In the past decades, not independent of the emergence of new methods, such as archaeogenetics and palynology, and novel approaches to studying the Black Death such as climate and environmental history, scholars have increasingly turned to the analysis of the multiple waves of the second plague pandemic in this region. Recent studies have drawn attention to the apparent lack of data on the Black Death in the region while pointing to the potential role of the later waves, such as the pestis secunda and tercia, as well as later medieval and early modern recurrences of the epidemic in the historical demography of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. The paper provides an overview of the written evidence of the Black Death in Hungary and publishes in extenso some of the most important documentary evidence of the episodes of the epidemic in the Kingdom of Hungary. It argues that, unlike in the case of Bohemia and Poland, the first wave of the plague can be relatively well pursued by a critical analysis of the written evidence.
The Black Death across Europe- Conference paper
This paper aims to look at the history of the bubonic plague in the 14 th century through historical, archaeological and medical means. From its beginnings on the Mongolian steppes the plague has always been interlinked with man and his love of commerce, indeed it is this very trade that help spread the plague during the 14 th century. Once the plague interacted with man it spread like wildfire causing the death of nearly a third of all Europeans and bringing about a new and distinct paradigm with ramifications that would shape modern Europe, that of social mobility and the rise of the working class.
Historical Studies on Central Europe, 2024
This paper aims to enhance our knowledge about late-medieval epidemic outbreaks in specific parts of Eastern Central Europe. The first part on modern-day Eastern Germany discusses narrative evidence and its use in the current research on plague history, before bringing in municipal records on testaments and conveyances from Görlitz and Stralsund for the reconstruction of seasonality and mortality rates, as well as funeral inscriptions and pictorial evidence from Erfurt as indirect indicators of plague waves. After a brief discussion of the scarce narrative sources, the second part of the paper concerning Bohemia works with the evidence of the Libri Confirmationum, a source originating from the chancellery of the archbishops of Prague. Every new appointment to a benefice was supposed to be approved by one of the vicars general of the archbishop, and this confirmation usually gives the reason for the vacancy. Expanding on Eduard Maur's research, death statistics and their frequency are analyzed statistically. The paper provides insight into new evidence for the reconstruction of plague waves, mortality rates and seasonality, and thereby highlights the characteristics of the plague in Eastern Central Europe.
Historical Studies on Central Europe , 2024
This paper aims to enhance our knowledge about late-medieval epidemic outbreaks in specific parts of Eastern Central Europe. The first part on modern-day Eastern Germany discusses narrative evidence and its use in the current research on plague history, before bringing in municipal records on testaments and conveyances from Görlitz and Stralsund for the reconstruction of seasonality and mortality rates, as well as funeral inscriptions and pictorial evidence from Erfurt as indirect indicators of plague waves. After a brief discussion of the scarce narrative sources, the second part of the paper concerning Bohemia works with the evidence of the Libri Confirmationum, a source originating from the chancellery of the archbishops of Prague. Every new appointment to a benefice was supposed to be approved by one of the vicars general of the archbishop, and this confirmation usually gives the reason for the vacancy. Expanding on Eduard Maur's research, death statistics and their frequency are analyzed statistically. The paper provides insight into new evidence for the reconstruction of plague waves, mortality rates and seasonality, and thereby highlights the characteristics of the plague in Eastern Central Europe.