Probably the greatest natural disaster to ever curse humanity, the Black Death's lethality is legendary, killing between a quarter to over half of any given stricken area's population. Though historians suspect a first wave of bubonic plague struck the Mediterranean area between 571 - 760 C.E., there is no doubt that the plague was carried west by the Mongol Golden Horde in the late 1340s as they raided as far west as Constantinople, where it is believed that Genoese traders became infected, and then carried, the disease into European and northern African ports after their escape. Within about two years practically the entire European continent and much of North Africa had been burned over by this disaster of apocalyptic proportions.
Eight thematic chapters guide the reader through the medical perspective of the plague― medieval and modern―and to the plague's impact on society, cities, individuals, and art of the time. Medieval doctors named miasmatic vapors―bad air ―as a primary cause of infection, along with an improper balance of the four Humors―blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile, often caused by ominous astrological alignments; or so they believed. Scapegoats, often Jews, were persecuted and murdered as frightened people desperately sought somebody to blame for the spread of the plague. Others assumed the plague was God's punishment of wicked humanity, and roamed the countryside in groups that would flagellate themselves publicly as an act of atonement. An annotated timeline guides the reader to the key events and dates of this recurring disaster. Nine illustrations show how artists represented the plague's impact on the self and society. Twelve primary documents, half of them never before translated into English, come from eyewitnesses ranging from Constantinople, Damascus, Prague, Italy, France, Germany, and England. A glossary is provided that enables readers to quickly look up unfamiliar medical and historical terms and concepts such as Bacillus, Verjuice, and Peasants' Revolt of 1381. An annotated bibliography follows, divided by topic. The work is fully indexed.

The Black Death (Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Medieval World)

History

Byrne, Joseph P.

Europe

Greenwood

Daily life during the Black Death was anything but normal. When plague hit a community, every aspect of life was turned upside down, from relations within families to its social, political, and economic stucture. Theaters emptied, graveyards filled, and the streets were ruled by the terrible corpse-bearers whose wagons of death rumbled day and night.
Daily life during the Black Death was anything but normal. During the three and a half centuries that constituted the Second Pandemic of Bubonic Plague, from 1348 to 1722, Europeans were regularly assaulted by epidemics that mowed them down like a reaper's scythe. When plague hit a community, every aspect of life was turned upside down, from relations within families to its social, political and economic structure. Theaters emptied, graveyards filled, and the streets were ruled by terrible corpse-bearers whose wagons of death rumbled night and day. Plague time elicited the most heroic and inhuman behavior imaginable. And yet Western Civilization survived to undergo the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and early Enlightenment.
In Daily Life during the Black Death Joseph Byrne opens with an outline of the course of the Second Pandemic, the causes and nature of bubonic plague, and the recent revisionist view of what the Black Death really was. He presents the phenomenon of plague thematically by focusing on the places people lived and worked and confronted their horrors: the home, the church and cemetary, the village, the pest houses, the streets and roads. He leads readers to the medical school classroom where the false theories of plague were taught, through the careers of doctors who futiley treated victims, to the council chambers of city hall where civic leaders agonized over ways to prevent and then treat the pestilence. He discusses the medicines, prayers, literature, special clothing, art, burial practices, and crime that plague spawned. Byrne draws vivid examples from across both Europe and the period, and presents the words of witnesses and victims themselves wherever possible. He ends with a close discussion of the plague at Marseille (1720-22), the last major plague in northern Europe, and the research breakthroughs at the end of the nineteenth century that finally defeated bubonic plague.

Daily Life during the Black Death (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

Examining a 300-year period that encompasses the Scientific Revolution, this engrossing book offers a fresh and clearly organized discussion of the human experience of health, medicine, and health care, from the Age of Discovery to the era of the French Revolution.
Health and Wellness in the Renaissance and Enlightenment compares and contrasts health care practices of various cultures from around the world during the vital period from 1500 to 1800. These years, which include the Age of Discovery and the Scientific Revolution, were a period of rapid advance of both science and medicine. New drugs were developed and new practices, some of which stemmed from increasingly frequent contact between various cultures, were initiated.
Examining the medical systems of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the colonial world, this comprehensive study covers a wide array of topics including education and training of medical professionals and the interaction of faith, religion, and medicine. The book looks specifically at issues related to women's health and the health of infants and children, at infectious diseases and occupational and environmental hazards, and at brain and mental disorders. Chapters also focus on advances in surgery, dentistry, and orthopedics, and on the apothecary and his pharmacopoeia.
 • Photographs and illustrations from medical texts and other works of the period
• A glossary of technical, cultural, and historical terms
• A bibliography of modern and period resources

Health and Wellness in the Renaissance and Enlightenment (Health and Wellness in Daily Life)

Differences in financial structure result in contrasting financing and economic behavior. This book confronts theory and empirical research with aggregate financial data across the G7, spanning 1970 through 2000. It compares the contrasting patterns and development of financial structures with the main theoretical and empirical results in economic literature. The resulting data analysis traces portfolios over a turbulent period characterized by considerable economic and financial instability, marked financial liberalization, far-reaching technical change and volatile asset prices.

Financial Structure: An Investigation of Sectoral Balance Sheets in the G-7 (National Institute of Economic and Social Research Economic and Social Studies, Series Number 43)

Business & Money

Davis, E. Philip

Economics

Cambridge University Press

Students of the Italian Renaissance who wish to go beyond the standard names and subjects will find in this text abundant information on the lives, customs, beliefs, and practices of those who lived during this exciting time period.
The World of Renaissance Italy: A Daily Life Encyclopedia engages all of the Italian peninsula from the Black Death (1347–1352) to 1600. Unlike other encyclopedic works about the Renaissance era, this book deals exclusively with Italy, revealing the ways common Italian people lived and experienced the events and technological developments that marked the Renaissance era. The coverage specifically spotlights marginal or traditionally marginalized groups, including women, homosexuals, Jews, the elderly, and foreign communities in Italian cities.
The entries in this two-volume set are organized into 10 sections of 25 alphabetically listed entries each. Among the broad sections are art, fashion, family and gender, food and drink, housing and community, politics, recreation and social customs, and war. The "See Also" sources for each article are listed by section for easy reference, a feature that students and researchers will greatly appreciate. The extensive collection of contemporary documents include selections from a diary, letters, a travel journal, a merchant's inventory, Inquisition testimony, a metallurgical handbook, and text by an artist that describes what the author feels constitutes great work. Each of the primary source documents accompanies a specific article and provides an added dimension and degree of insight to the material.
 • Synthesizes the latest research and publication in the Italian Renaissance era by the top scholars in their respective historical fields
• Covers a range of types of people and issues rarely covered in other books on the Italian Renaissance and supplies detailed coverage that adds a social dimension to traditional topics such as art, religion, and war
• Authored by a prolific and highly regarded author of history texts, Joseph P. Byrne, PhD, who is expert in the Italian Renaissance
• Appropriate for advanced high school and undergraduate college students as well as general readers interested in the Renaissance period in Italy

The World of Renaissance Italy: A Daily Life Encyclopedia [2 volumes] (Daily Life Encyclopedias)

Product Description 
From the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the 14th century to the influenza pandemic following World War I and the novel strain of coronavirus that made "social distancing" the new normal, wide-scale disease outbreaks have played an important role throughout human history. In addition to the toll they take on human lives, epidemics have spurred medical innovations, toppled governments, crippled economies, and led to cultural revolutions.\nEpidemics and Pandemics: From Ancient Plagues to Modern-Day Threats provides readers with a holistic view of the terrifying―and fascinating―topic of epidemics and pandemics. In Volume 1, readers will discover what an epidemic is, how it emerges and spreads, what diseases are most likely to become epidemics, and how disease outbreaks are tracked, prevented, and combatted. They will learn about the impacts of such modern factors as global air travel and antibiotic resistance, as well as the roles played by public health agencies and the media. Volume 2 offers detailed case studies that explore the course and lasting significance of individual epidemics and pandemics throughout history. 
 About the Author 
Joseph P. Byrne holds a doctorate in medieval and early modern European history from Indiana University. He has taught in the honors program and history department at Belmont University since 1988.\nJo N. Hays is professor emeritus of history at Loyola University. He received his PhD in history and the history of science from the University of Chicago.

Epidemics and Pandemics: From Ancient Plagues to Modern-Day Threats [2 volumes]

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Hays, Jo N.

Diseases & Physical Ailments

Epidemics And Pandemics

Hays, J. N.

Santa Barbara : Abc-clio, Llc

This encyclopedia provides 300 interdisciplinary, cross-referenced entries that document the effect of the plague on Western society across the four centuries of the second plague pandemic, balancing medical history and technical matters with historical, cultural, social, and political factors.
Encyclopedia of the Black Death is the first A–Z encyclopedia to cover the second plague pandemic, balancing medical history and technical matters with historical, cultural, social, and political factors and effects in Europe and the Islamic world from 1347–1770. It also bookends the period with entries on Biblical plagues and the Plague of Justinian, as well as modern-era material regarding related topics, such as the work of Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, the Third Plague Pandemic of the mid-1800s, and plague in the United States.
Unlike previous encyclopedic works about this subject that deal broadly with infectious disease and its social or historical contexts, including the author's own, this interdisciplinary work synthesizes much of the research on the plague and related medical history published in the last decade in accessible, compellingly written entries. Controversial subject areas such as whether "plague" was bubonic plague and the geographic source of plague are treated in a balanced and unbiased manner.
 • 300 A–Z interdisciplinary entries on medical matters and historical issues
• Each entry includes up-to-date resources for further research

Encyclopedia of the Black Death

ABC-CLIO

Bloomsbury Academic

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Byrne, Joseph P.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Byrne, Joseph P.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Byrne, Joseph P.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Black Death (Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Medieval World)

Daily Life during the Black Death (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

Health and Wellness in the Renaissance and Enlightenment (Health and Wellness in Daily Life)

Financial Structure: An Investigation of Sectoral Balance Sheets in the G-7 (National Institute of Economic and Social Research Economic and Social Studies, Series Number 43)

The World of Renaissance Italy: A Daily Life Encyclopedia [2 volumes] (Daily Life Encyclopedias)

Epidemics and Pandemics: From Ancient Plagues to Modern-Day Threats [2 volumes]

Epidemics And Pandemics

Encyclopedia of the Black Death

Encyclopedia of the Black Death