The Black Death: Europe in the Later Middle Ages

Hi everyone,

Before beginning this week's blog post I've been asked to pass along a message from Clare.

Dear Students,

You will have received en email from SETU (Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units), inviting you to evaluate ATS 1316. Please do so! We really want to know what you think.

These surveys are taken extremely seriously by the University. They are used when staff members apply for promotion, or for other jobs. They are also used to make changes to the units for next year, drawing on student comments. These blogs, for example, emerged out of comments by students that they sometimes felt disconnected during first year. Hence, we have tried to build community and encourage your readings by running these blogs.

So let us know what you think of the unit. YOU ARE VERY POWERFUL!

Many thanks, Clare

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Week 11: Famine and Disease: The Calamitous 14th Century - Tutorial Discussion Post

By: Samantha, Jane, Georgia and Lachlan

Hi everyone,

This week we’ll be discussing ‘Famine and Disease: The calamitous 14^th century’, so basically the Black Death! Although the readings take a very thorough look at the social and economic issues of this time, there are some great accounts of the plague included this week as well. A particular focus in this week's reading is the economic state of pre-plague Florence. It looks at the boom of the wool and banking industries and the general expansion/urbanisation of Florence and thus the social, political and economic ramifications.

Florence, Italy

 This week we’ll take a look at this enormously successful period in Florence that would later develop into the Renaissance and the tremendous blow to that success which was the Black Death, arriving in the summer of 1348, and how it spread throughout Europe. 

Attire worn by doctors as protection from
the Bubonic Plague

Below are a few answers to some discussion questions for this week to help get the further discussion in comments rolling:

Explain the nature of the ‘flourishing urban civilization’ that Margaret King describes in Italy prior to the Black Death. What were the economic foundations of the civilizations of Florence and Venice?

King describes work being so well that it could be completely neglected for some time. She goes on to describe the amounts of people thriving in Florence, “90 000 mouths…80 000 men in the territory and district of Florence.” Prior to the Black Death were thoughts that would re-emerge during the Renaissance; ideas of new buildings, young writers and thinkers etc…

Florence was well known for its banking and wool. Both these industries had papal support and of course noble support. Thereby, these markets would always be in business. Considering the expanse and necessity of cloth, Florence’s wool industry was a huge investment in the trade industry.

Venice was and still is recognized for its shipbuilding and also its trading industry. Venice’s galleys were ideal for dangerous trading journeys. This reputation had been built up over the years and became an important investment for traders to try and utilize.

Does the extract from Petrarch's Letter to Posterity indicate an optimistic or pessimistic sense of his legacy?

Petrarch’s Letter to Posterity defies the optimism-pessimism binary. In this work he settles on a balanced middle ground; he is confident of the work he has completed in his lifetime and yet uncertain of whether or not it will endure. This position is exemplified in the excerpt from the opening section of To Posterity contained in this week’s readings.

Take, for example, the phrase “You may perhaps have heard something about me- although it is doubtful that my poor little name may travel far in space and time” this phrase is a perfectly contained example of the ambiguity of Petrarch’s outlook on his own significance. In the first clause, he implies that an undetermined reader of the letter may have heard of him, while the second is a supplementary phrase indicating a humbly realistic awareness that he may well have faded into obscurity after death. He further acknowledges mortality but not complete insignificance in the phrase “But I was one of your own clock, a little mortal man”.

Letter to Posterity is fascinating because it reveals Petrarch’s extraordinary sense of self. He realises the subjectivity of his position in time, looking to the both the past (and the great minds that came before him) and the future, conscious that he mediates the transmission of a great legacy of human spirit.

Hope those answers gave a bit more insight into the readings this week. Here are some further discussion questions to consider:

1.     How does the summary of the narrative Ascent of Mont Ventoux (mentioned in this week’s readings) relate to the themes that emerge from a reading of the excerpt from the introduction from To Posterity?

2.     Do you think the humility of To Posterity is real or disingenuous?

3.     According to Margaret King, why was banking and the wool industry successful in Florence?

4.     In the beginning, how did Venetian trading start to flourish? How are Venetian galleys depicted through King’s description (are they seen as good or bad ships)? 

5.     What does King suggest started the plague? What were the death toll figures of the Black Death?

Thanks guys,

Sam, Jane, Lachlan and Georgia.

Here are a few more images of medieval artistic interpretations of the Black Death:

Sufferers of the plague being blessed

Plague sufferers

Victims of the plague