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Disruptions such as COVID-19—and the subsequent flux they wreak on organizations and society—have become commonplace. In order to advance our understanding of (and adaptation to) future discontinuities and crises, we argue that we require a reconceptualization of how disruption occurs. To do so, we draw on event systems theory; in contrast to previous work viewing disruption as the outcome of a singular event, we focus on how disruption can occur from an event chain—that is, a set of events that are temporally and causally connected. We abductively shape our conceptual arguments by drawing on narratives of past pandemics, reviewing two historical and two fictional texts that (re)create the experiences of those living through the Black Death and subsequent outbreaks of the bubonic plague. Rather than focusing on events themselves, we identify how certain characteristics among events in a chain lead to four microlevel experiences: stagnation, disorientation, polarization, and repudiation. We then proceed to examine how these microlevel reactions culminate into macrolevel transformations of economic, political, and cultural norms. Our event-system perspective on disruption and crises thereby generates insight, not only into understanding the (post-)pandemic world, but also into responses to future discontinuities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critiques the debate over the extent to which labor shortages caused by the Black Death and subsequent epidemics empowered women economically, and whether this had significant implications for overall demographic behavior and long‐term economic performance. Some historians have argued that after ca. 1350 women in the North Sea region were drawn into the land and labor markets to a far greater extent than women in other parts of Europe, and in particular into employment as single live‐in servants, which led to a rise in the average age of women at first marriage and the proportion of women never marrying. This in turn led to the formation of the European Marriage Pattern (EMP), which is associated with fertility restriction and higher levels of household income. The evidence and arguments underpinning this viewpoint are critically evaluated for England, where by 1600 the EMP was certainly established. The extant sources do not enable us to measure the extent of women's financial gains after the Black Death, or to assess changes in their marital choices. There is no convincing evidence for any rise in the proportion of single female servants in the century after the Black Death or for the existence of the EMP before 1550. Young women did not increase their participation in the land market in order to construct a marriage fund. The article concludes by assessing the possible chronologies of England's transition to the EMP, and by suggesting new lines of enquiry about structural changes in women's work during the sixteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the demographic contours and impact of the pestis secunda—the second wave of the Second Plague Pandemic—which ravaged England and Wales in 1361–62. The study is based on a rich corpus of statistical data deriving from manorial records—primarily court rolls, but also inquisitions postmortem and episcopal registers—on a national level. A close analysis of the data reveals that the wave in question tended to discriminate across regions, socioeconomic statuses, and genders. The study's findings are then considered within a wider context of ongoing historiographical debates related to the total size of the English population before and after the Black Death. It argues that the population size of England on the eve of the Black Death was higher than often argued, and that the impact of the pestis secunda was harsher than often assumed. The evidence suggests that it was the pestis secunda, rather than the Black Death, that had severe, long‐term demographic and socioeconomic repercussions for England and Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, the period from the late Middle Ages through early modernity was bookended by demographic change. On one edge, there was the Black Death and subsequent plague pandemics, which halved the population, reshaping English society in their wake. On the other, there was the demographic transition of the mid‐eighteenth century, which reduced death rates and led to modern family structures. Between these two epochal events, demographic trends shaped English customs and values, and were in turn shaped by them. The articles in this special issue draw on cutting‐edge demographic research to offer new interpretations of the effects of plague, patterns of marriage, evolving forms of labor, and the morality of crime and charity, among other subjects. Together, they illustrate how quantitative studies in historical demography can shed light on key transformations in culture and society—and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study seeks to identify signals of the male–female health‐survival paradox in medieval London. Materials and Methods: This study uses skeletal data on age, sex, dental caries (n = 592) and antemortem tooth loss (n = 819) from adult individuals from medieval London cemeteries (c. 1200–1540 CE). The association between age and dental caries was assessed using binary logistic regression. The associations among age, time period (pre‐ vs. post‐Black Death), oral biomarker (dental caries or antemortem tooth loss), and sex were tested using hierarchical log‐linear analysis. Results: The analyses reveal significantly higher odds of dental caries with increasing adult ages, more older adults after the Black Death, different age distributions of dental caries between the sexes, and a greater decrease in the prevalence of dental caries for females after the Black Death. These results appear not to be an artifact of trends in AMTL. However, this study does not yield evidence suggesting that females experienced both a survival advantage and a decline in oral health at late adult ages after the Black Death relative to males. Conclusions: These results do not provide evidence of the existence of a male–female health‐survival paradox, but they do corroborate existing evidence of improvements in health in general in the aftermath of the Black Death. The decreased prevalence of dental caries after the Black Death may reflect dietary improvements or the effects of selective mortality during the epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of a universally accepted definition of a pandemic hinders a comprehensive understanding of and effective response to these global health crises. Current definitions often lack quantitative criteria, rendering them vague and limiting their utility. Here, we propose a refined definition that considers the likelihood of susceptible individuals contracting an infectious disease that culminates in widespread global transmission, increased morbidity and mortality, and profound societal, economic, and political consequences. Applying this definition retrospectively, we identify 22 pandemics that occurred between 165 and 2024 AD and were caused by a variety of diseases, including smallpox (Antonine and American), plague (Justinian, Black Death, and Third Plague), cholera (seven pandemics), influenza (two Russian, Spanish, Asian, Hong Kong, and swine), AIDS, and coronaviruses (SARS, MERS, and COVID-19). This work presents a comprehensive analysis of past pandemics caused by both emerging and re-emerging pathogens, along with their epidemiological characteristics, societal impact, and evolution of public health responses. We also highlight the need for proactive measures to reduce the risk of future pandemics. These strategies include prioritizing surveillance of emerging zoonotic pathogens, conserving biodiversity to counter wildlife trafficking, and minimizing the potential for zoonotic spillover events. In addition, interventions such as promoting alternative protein sources, enforcing the closure of live animal markets in biodiversity-rich regions, and fostering global collaboration among diverse stakeholders are critical to preventing future pandemics. Crucially, improving wildlife surveillance systems will require the concerted efforts of local, national and international entities, including laboratories, field researchers, wildlife conservationists, government agencies and other stakeholders. By fostering collaborative networks and establishing robust biorepositories, we can strengthen our collective capacity to detect, monitor, and mitigate the emergence and transmission of zoonotic pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648 was the most devastating conflict in European history prior to the twentieth century and the greatest demographic crisis since the Black Death of the fourteenth century. Accordingly, many scholars have examined the 'human cost' of the Thirty Years' War both in broader studies of the military and civilian experience of the conflict and with an increased focus on the multiple types of localised civil-military interactions which characterised the 'small war' or Kleinkrieg. This article takes these studies further, by examining how refugees – a neglected manifestation of the 'human cost' of the Thirty Years' War – could in turn have a significant impact on how warfare was conducted locally and on the course of the conflict itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking advantage of key recent advances in long-run economic and financial data, we analyze the statistical properties of global long-maturity real interest rates over the past seven centuries. In contrast to existing consensus, we find that real interest rates are in fact trend stationary and exhibit a persistent downward trend since the Renaissance. We investigate structural breaks in real interest rates over time and find that overall the Black Death and the 1557 "Trinity default" appear as consistent inflection points. We further show that demographic and productivity factors do not represent convincing drivers of real interest rates over long spans. (JEL E43, F30, N20) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we bring together a variety of studies, both old and new, to examine continuity and change in population dynamics in Italy during the medieval millennium (476–1492 AD). Though the available data are often sporadic and should be interpreted with great caution, it is possible to clarify certain dynamics, which can be useful for guiding future research. First, population fluctuations were not impacted by migration into or out of Italy. Second, medieval Italy was characterized by a high‐pressure demographic regime: e0 was around 20 years, with high adult mortality, and the birth rate was around 50 per mill. Third, despite high mortality, the Italian population grew (+50 percent) from the ninth century to 1347, mainly—but not exclusively—due to the absence of plague. Fourth, the stagnant population of the periods between the sixth and the eighth centuries and the 14th and 16th centuries was determined by the recurrent outbreaks of plague. Fifth, the population stagnation during the first and the last medieval centuries is also partly related to the increase in age at first marriage, while the demographic growth between the ninth and mid‐14th century is possibly connected to the decrease in age at first marriage among women. Sixth, the vitality of the medieval Italian population was partly ensured by a high rate of remarriage among widows. Seventh, data on statures show that mortality levels were determined by epidemic factors, rather than living standards. Finally, when the plague ceased in Europe in the middle of the Early Modern Age, adult survival was significantly higher than in the ancient and medieval centuries, despite the fact that neither hygienic‐sanitary nor epidemiological conditions, and certainly not nutrition, were better than in the centuries preceding the Black Death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the short-run macroeconomic impacts of influenza pandemics across 16 countries spanning 1871–2016 using the Jordà–Schularick–Taylor Macrohistory Database and the Human Mortality Database. We find pandemic-induced mortality contributed meaningfully to business cycle fluctuations in the post 1870 era. We identify negative causal impacts on the cyclical component of GDP using pandemics to instrument for working-age mortality. The analysis of short-run economic outcomes extends literature dominated by long-run economic growth outcomes and case studies of several specific health shocks such as the Black Death, Spanish Flu or COVID-19. Our findings illustrate that less catastrophic pandemics still have important economic implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemplative reader of literature realizes that natural and social calamities, which inflict colossal sufferings on human beings, are best portrayed within its major genres. Examples of such calamities are wars, natural disasters and infectious diseases. In light of these critical circumstances, men of letters in general and playwrights in particular have not stood idly by. Rather, they found themselves more fervent to dramatize such calamities in their writings. William Shakespeare is the best to cite here. To everyone‘s surprise, Shakespeare composed most of his masterpieces during the quarantine period initiated by the "Plague" or ―Black Death,‖ which first struck England in the fourteenth century. Examples of Shakespeare‘s plague plays are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, besides many others. In one way or another, such plays bear some allusions to the traumatic anxieties and fears caused by the plague experience at that time. The present study is conducted to explore the traumatic impact of the Plague on Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet. It seems that almost every aspect in the fictitious world of Romeo and Juliet has been touched by the plague, both literally and symbolically. Throughout Romeo and Juliet, the reader could encounter only two scenes that explicitly mention or dramatize the plague. However, Shakespeare proves to be a skillful master in blinding the plague and quarantine themes into several symbolic and figurative motifs. Shakespeare could achieve this through employing a symbolic language saturated with traumatic plague allusions to account for the tragic endings of his characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of climate and disease as a major factor resulting in disruption and upheaval in the Turkic world in the 14th-15th centuries. The first issue the paper addresses is the beginning of the climatic downturn in circa 1280, which will ultimately culminate in the Little Ice Age of the late 15th-18th centuries. The paper cites recent work on the role of climate in the history of Iran. While the author has explored this issue in detail for the history of the Golden Horde, the impact of climate change on Iran in the 14th-15th centuries is a topic which has yet to be investigated adequately by historians. More importantly, climate change is associated with the spread of the Black Death, both in the original point of its spread and especially in the lower Volga River delta. The paper addresses the role of the Black Death (1346- ) as a disruptive factor in the history of the Golden Horde and the Chağatay Khanate. Citing recent research, it also considers legacy of the Black Death in the political, socio-economic, and cultural history of the Il-Khanate and what it meant for the rise of the Aqqoyunlu state. In the Golden Horde, Central Asia, and the Ottoman Empire, the Black Death led to a decline or disappearance in the earlier Islamic Turkic literary language. The earlier archair literary language was replaced by a newer literary language closer to the vernacular or spoken language of the people. There is also evidence of cultural responses to plague written in the new language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the role of narration in times of crisis. Drawing on studies on storytelling and bibliotherapy, it compares the Decameron, a collection of short stories written during and immediately after the 1348 Black Death, with two Decameron‐based collections written during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic: The New York Times Magazine's The Decameron Project: 29 Stories From the Pandemic and Nuovo Decameron. The article argues that narration has two ways of relating to times of crisis: as an escape from reality and as a therapeutic means of overcoming trauma. Both ways emphasize that storytelling is a future‐oriented tool that can have a positive impact on both the individual and the community: sometimes finding unexpected silver linings, sometimes making sense of a reality that seems surreal. In this sense, the article concludes, the narration is a process of choral reconstruction that brings life back to the stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Girolamo Mercuriale's treatise, "On Pestilence," was published in 1577 and has now been translated into English by Craig Martin. The treatise explores the plague that occurred in Venice from 1575-1577 and the medical theories and practices of Mercuriale during that time. The introduction provides historical context and highlights the tension between Mercuriale's misdiagnosis of the plague and the innovative aspects of his treatise. The translation includes a glossary, notes, bibliography, and index, making it accessible to both experts and a wider audience. [Extracted from the article]

Luxury houses are constantly in search of meaningful, ethical and sustainable alternatives to petrochemically-derived materials that may end up in wastefills. We are witnessing the emergence of a new era that will change the world forever. Still in its infancy, the concept of bioengineered fabrics may offer the most planet-friendly and noble alternative to the luxury industry. Just as the Rennaissance period was born out of the Black Death, today's accelerated development of environmentally-safe materials seem to have been born out of the Covid-19 crisis that has obliged us to reconsider the damage we have inflicted on the health of our world in the name of profitability and employment since the advent of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, only 261 years ago. Do bio-based alternatives offer the prospect of a real way forward? To which extent could bacteria-based solutions be embraced by the luxury sector? Will they ever be accepted as 'noble materials'? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Shocking Contrasts: Political Response to Exogenous Supply Shocks" by Ronald L. Rogowski is a book that explores the social and political disruptions that occur when the supply of key factors of production is significantly and unexpectedly altered by exogenous shocks. The author examines historical case studies, such as the Black Death in Europe and the Russian population explosion, to analyze how societies respond to these shocks. The book presents five case studies and discusses variations in responses, such as factor substitution, factor mobility, factor-saving technology, or coercion. While the book neglects the role of institutions and relies on ad hoc explanations, it is still a valuable and comprehensive analysis of societies' responses to shocks. [Extracted from the article]

The extent of the devastation of the Black Death pandemic (1346-1353) on European populations is known from documentary sources and its bacterial source illuminated by studies of ancient pathogen DNA. What has remained less understood is the effect of the pandemic on human mobility and genetic diversity at the local scale. Here, we report 275 ancient genomes, including 109 with coverage >0.1Ã--, from later medieval and postmedieval Cambridgeshire of individuals buried before and after the Black Death. Consistent with the function of the institutions, we found a lack of close relatives among the friars and the inmates of the hospital in contrast to their abundance in general urban and rural parish communities. While we detect long-term shifts in local genetic ancestry in Cambridgeshire, we find no evidence of major changes in genetic ancestry nor higher differentiation of immune loci between cohorts living before and after the Black Death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study explores the paleoepidemiology of the Black Death (1348–52 AD) mass graves from Hereford, England, via osteological analysis. Hereford plague mortality is evaluated in the local context of the medieval city and examined alongside other Black Death burials. Methods: The Hereford Cathedral site includes mass graves relating to the Black Death and a 12th‐16th century parish cemetery. In total, 177 adult skeletons were analyzed macroscopically: 73 from the mass graves and 104 from the parish cemetery. Skeletal age‐at‐death was assessed using transition analysis, and sex and stress markers were analyzed. Results: The age‐at‐death distributions for the mass graves and parish cemetery were significantly different (p = 0.0496). Within the mass graves, young adults (15–24 years) were substantially over‐represented, and mortality peaked at 25–34 years. From 35 years of age onwards, there was little variation in the mortality profiles for the mass graves and parish cemetery. Males and females had similar representation across burial types. Linear enamel hypoplasia was more prevalent within the mass graves (p = 0.0340) whereas cribra orbitalia and tibial periostitis were underrepresented. Conclusions: Mortality within the Hereford mass graves peaked at a slightly older age than is seen within plague burials from London, but the overall profiles are similar. This demonstrates that young adults were disproportionately at risk of dying from plague compared with other age groups. Our findings regarding stress markers may indicate that enamel hypoplasia is more strongly associated with vulnerability to plague than cribra orbitalia or tibial periostitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tell sites are central to archaeological interpretation in many world regions due to their lengthy sequences of stratified deposits. However, the cultural choices that create architectural remnants and associated materials are more poorly understood, as are the ways that previous layers situate the living community above. This article calls for agentive understandings of tell-formation processes through examination of archaeological sites in Burkina Faso, West Africa. We argue that tells here formed through strong cultural beliefs of co-residence between the living and ancestral communities. Drawing on data from excavation and cross-section profiles exposed by road construction, we provide evidence that architectural remnants were actively created and preserved in rituals related to the making and veneration of ancestors. Particular places in tells were used for new construction (often with foundation ritual deposits) only after the active memory of the individual faded from the living community, resulting in a slow (at least 80–100 years) stratification process. Through variations on these core ritual processes, dynamic multi-temporal social groups reinvented themselves over 1500 years through eras of inequity, egalitarian revolution and the Black Death pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate on the evolution of living standards in preindustrial England. It emphasizes the need to depart from the approach of focusing only on the time paths of observables, like income per capita and population size, in order to assess the validity of Malthusian predictions. It first constructs a Malthusian model and then develops a robust algorithm for identifying the latent forces that have shaped aggregate outcomes in the preindustrial era. The analysis suggests the existence of two distinct Malthusian regimes in preindustrial England: a survival-driven regime, where mortality is the main latent force in economic-demographic interactions, and a later technology-driven regime that emerges after the mid-fifteenth century and is characterized by both population and productivity growth but stable mortality and long-run stagnation in per capita income. The paper discusses the role of various historical accidents (e.g., the Black Death, the discovery of the New World, the English Reformation) in triggering the emergence of the technology-driven regime, and it also highlights some mediating mechanisms through which subsequent productivity growth may have been sustained. The existence of long-run stagnation in income per capita in England through the mid-seventeenth century, despite the technological dynamism of the early modern period, is consistent with the predictions of Unified Growth Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to reconstruct tentative ways, in which the Black Death (the first wave of the Second Plague Pandemic) spread from its now-established home in the Tian Shan region to Western Eurasia between c.1338/41 and 1346. On the basis of all the available evidence—textual, palaeogenetic, archaeological, topographic, numismatic and palaeoclimatalogical—the article argues for two phases of the plague spread: (1) the slow phase of c.1338/41–45, hindered by political and commercial crises in the Mongol Empire, but especially the Chaghadaid khanate, as well as by local environmental conditions and (2) the fast phase of 1345–6, once the plague reached the territories of the Golden Horde. As it will be argued, commercial networks, both long-distance and local, across long-distance trade routes (so-called 'Silk Roads') played a paramount role in facilitating the spread of the plague. Although not claiming to have solved the mystery of the westbound plague spread, the paper aims to provide a first full-scale study of this kind, raising new research questions and forming a starting point for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the historical and contemporary challenges of transplanting organs from HIV-positive donors to HIV-positive recipients, emphasizing how societal responses to pandemics, like HIV, have evolved from denial and mistrust to improved medical practices. A recent multicenter study by Durand and colleagues demonstrates that the outcomes for kidney transplants from HIV-positive donors are equivalent to those from HIV-negative donors.

The article discusses teaching early modern literature during the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics include the adaption to digital classes within higher education, the parallels of teaching the Black Death during the pandemic, and the author's course on Giovanni Boccaccio's "Decameron" and Alessandro Manzoni's "I promessi sposi."

The article discusses teaching the Black Death with online materials. The author discusses the essay "On Learning How to Teach the Black Death," by medieval science and medicine historian Monica Green, examines the parallels of the Black Death and the COVID-19 pandemic, and explores the connection to the history of medicine.

Pestis secunda (1356–1366 CE) is the first of a series of plague outbreaks in Europe that followed the Black Death (1346–1353 CE). Collectively this period is called the Second Pandemic. From a genomic perspective, the majority of post-Black Death strains of Yersinia pestis thus far identified in Europe display diversity accumulated over a period of centuries that form a terminal sub-branch of the Y. pestis phylogeny. It has been debated if these strains arose from local evolution of Y. pestis or if the disease was repeatedly reintroduced from an external source. Plague lineages descended from the pestis secunda, however, are thought to have persisted in non-human reservoirs outside Europe, where they eventually gave rise to the Third Pandemic (19th and 20th centuries). Resolution of competing hypotheses on the origins of the many post-Black Death outbreaks has been hindered in part by the low representation of Y. pestis genomes in archaeological specimens, especially for the pestis secunda. Here we report on five individuals from Germany that were infected with lineages of plague associated with the pestis secunda. For the two genomes of high coverage, one groups within the known diversity of genotypes associated with the pestis secunda, while the second carries an ancestral genotype that places it earlier. Through consideration of historical sources that explore first documentation of the pandemic in today's Central Germany, we argue that these data provide robust evidence to support a post-Black Death evolution of the pathogen within Europe rather than a re-introduction from outside. Additionally, we demonstrate retrievability of Y. pestis DNA in post-cranial remains and highlight the importance of hypothesis-free pathogen screening approaches in evaluations of archaeological samples. Author summary: We present two high-coverage and three low-coverage ancient Y. pestis genomes that represent previously described diversity within a narrow time interval that immediately post-dates the Black Death (the pestis secunda), and a newly identified precursor strain. Viewed in context with recent historical revelations that define the time-span between the end of the Black Death and the emergence of the pestis secunda to a three-year interval, our analysis strongly supports this outbreak, similar to other post-Black Death outbreaks, as having originated from a local source of Y. pestis diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Athens-Clarke County, Georgia is home to the first publicly chartered institution of higher learning in the United States: The University of Georgia (UGA). For the last 200 + years, UGA has brought settlers to Athens and led them in Indigenous removal, slavery, Jim and Jane Crow politics, segregation, and racial discrimination. A reckoning with this history of slavery and the ongoing harms of settler-colonial higher education is long overdue. This paper describes the efforts of a group of faculty and students at UGA beginning this process. In particular, we utilize Christina Shape's (2016) notion of "wake work" to reflect upon a visceral moment of anti-Black violence on our campus: the unearthing and contested reburial of human remains that were likely enslaved or formerly enslaved individuals during the expansion of UGA's Baldwin Hall. Sharpe's wake work asks us to sit with the omnipresence of Black death, but to also imagine a future otherwise. We provide personal vignettes and remembrances about our experiences with the events and activism surrounding Baldwin Hall as a key component of coming to consciousness about the institutions and practices of white supremacy within the place we work and learn. We conclude with specific recommendations to other universities and their faculty, students, staff, and community members fighting for racial justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medieval Bologna was a vibrant and dynamic city with hundreds of artisans, craftsmen, students, government officials (and other professionals), as well as animals, all sharing the same streets, neighborhoods, and waterways. As this paper will show, medieval officials were highly concerned with keeping their city and its environs, safe and healthy, and devoted significant amounts of time and resources to achieve these goals. Using Bologna as a case study, this article maps in GIS over one hundred regulations from the city's urban statutes from 1245-67, to examine public health strategies. In doing so, it will demonstrate that medieval officials in Bologna employed a spatial logic as they created health regulations and oversaw the construction and maintenance of infrastructure. This spatial logic was grounded in an understanding of movement and an awareness of how, where, and when people, animals, goods, water, and waste moved through the city. In this way, the knowledge of space and movement were critical aspects of public health strategies which officials deployed to maintain a healthy and working city. • Demonstrates that medieval governments created and implemented preventive health measures prior to the Black Death. • Shows that medieval officials used knowledge of space and mobility to promote healthy and safe cities. • Uses urban statutes from medieval Bologna to conduct a spatial analysis in GIS. • Integrates data from historical and environmental sources. Public health scholars recognize that location-dependent characteristics including environmental factors (water and air quality), human factors (activities and population density), and infrastructure (roads, sewer systems, and buildings) influence both human and non-human health. While the regulation of public health is often thought of as a characteristic of modernity, managing the environment, human behavior, and other location contingent risks are not recent developments.1 Past medical theories, of course, could be quite different, and this article adds to the growing number of studies that demonstrate that medieval and premodern urban governments consciously strove to create healthy and safe spaces. This recent scholarship has challenged the longstanding narrative which casts the Black Death as the driving force behind the development of public health strategies, and has instead demonstrated that urban governments across Europe implemented numerous hygienic regulations and administrative oversights at least a century prior to the outbreak.2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of the Black Death, the economic consequences for laborers in our unfolding pandemic, COVID-19, might come as a surprise. Instead of labor shortages benefiting workers, especially the unskilled, and narrowing the gap between rich and poor, our pandemic has sent economic inequality racing forward across the world with laborers' health and material well-being plummeting. However, a closer examination of the Black Death suggests that the consequences for labor of the two pandemics may not be as different as first assumed. This essay explores the silver lining for labor after the dramatic crash in population caused by the Black Death and subsequent waves of plague during the second half of the fourteenth century. By first turning to Europe as a whole and then concentrating on Italy, this essay challenges notions that labor conditions and standards of living improved immediately after the Black Death's halving of populations and that these changes were almost universal across Europe or even within city-states, such as Florence, or in rural areas hosting different sorts of agricultural workers. In Italy, where real wages have been calculated, the Black Death's silver lining for laborers failed to arrive until two or three generations after 1348. Moreover, compressing economic inequality from the late fourteenth to the late fifteenth centuries spurred reactions from elites that wrought new inequalities in other spheres of activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ERAP2 is an aminopeptidase involved in immunological antigen presentation. Genotype data in human samples from before and after the Black Death, an epidemic due to Yersinia pestis , have marked changes in allele frequency of the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2549794, with the T allele suggested to be deleterious during this period, while ERAP2 is also implicated in autoimmune diseases. This study explored the association between variation at ERAP2 and (1) infection, (2) autoimmune disease, and (3) parental longevity. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of these outcomes were identified in contemporary cohorts (UK Biobank, FinnGen, and GenOMICC). Effect estimates were extracted for rs2549794 and rs2248374, a haplotype tagging SNP. Additionally, cis expression and protein quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for ERAP2 were used in Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses. Consistent with decreased survival in the Black Death, the T allele of rs2549794 showed evidence of association with respiratory infection (odds ratio; OR for pneumonia 1.03; 95% CI 1.01–1.05). Effect estimates were larger for more severe phenotypes (OR for critical care admission with pneumonia 1.08; 95% CI 1.02–1.14). In contrast, opposing effects were identified for Crohn disease (OR 0.86; 95% CI 0.82–0.90). This allele was shown to associate with decreased ERAP2 expression and protein levels, independent of haplotype. MR analyses suggest that ERAP2 expression may be mediating disease associations. Decreased ERAP2 expression is associated with severe respiratory infection with an opposing association with autoimmune diseases. These data support the hypothesis of balancing selection at this locus driven by autoimmune and infectious disease. The T allele at the ERAP2 SNP rs2549794 has been suggested as deleterious during the Black Death. We have found that the T allele is associated with increased risk of respiratory infection, with opposing effects for Crohn disease, supporting the hypothesis of balancing selection driven by autoimune and infectious disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a social drama in which churches, government, and individual actors have played prominent roles. While neo-conservative evangelicals have resisted governmental and scientific overreach in the name of "faith over fear", liberal religious groups have joined in government and medical efforts for the good of the commons, offered comfort and assurance to those suffering, and called for support of the poor at home and abroad. Religions have turned right and left, from apocalyptic "resets" of global order to new calls for social justice. In this context, the root metaphor of the epidemic has been called up as a historical construct that helps to conceptualize, analyze, and act upon the COVID-19 crisis. Searching the past helps us see that not everything about COVID-19 as a social drama is a new or unheard-of challenge. For example, there are new evocations of the black death of 14th-century Europe that became a crisis in the church, as well as the great Lisbon earthquake in 1755, which upended the confidence of the European Enlightenment. Another way to appraise the dimensions of the COVID-19 outbreak is to call on the varied approaches characteristic of the sociology of religion, that is, to consider how ideology and belief are socially constructed in order to account for new intellectual responses to societal challenges. Does religion always produce the "collective effervescence" Durkheim posited? Does religious change always arrive downstream of cultural change, or can it also become an independent variable? This article attends primarily to the sharp responses of conservative religious expression in the face of attention-getting upheaval, which has readily translated into right-wing political action and electioneering. But the social uplift and altruism of liberal religion is not neglected either. Thus, this article provides an account of how science and governmental action have both been challenged and embraced in response to COVID-19. As such, it is not an empirical study stemming from new Pew-like social polling. Rather, it is a wide overview rooted in sociological methods and theory for tracking religion historically and presently in America in a manner that aims to inform a discussion of how COVID-19 has impacted religion and religious expression, and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In contrast, fourteenth-century historians, including Thomas Walsingham (whose work I examine below), wrote after Edward I had asserted England's "ordained mandate to rule" over Ireland, Scotland and Wales with both political and military force. In the latter parts of Walsingham's account of the 1379 plague outbreak, then, Walsingham's colonialist rhetoric allows him to argue that the Black Death is not a sign of God's disfavor, but rather an exhortation to his English readers to follow in the footsteps of his English peasant-heroes, who demonstrated total obedience to established hierarchies, both sacred and secular. England and Scotland in the late Middle Ages England's attitude towards Scotland did not assume colonial features until the late Middle Ages. Walsingham wrote the Chronica maiora as a contemporary chronicle, covering the history of England from 1376 to 1393, though it was later revised and extended to cover the period 1272 to 1420.35 While Walsingham's history is not an official, state-sanctioned chronicle, it does broadly reflect the perspectives of many of England's elite -- and since most of England's elite adopted a colonialist posture towards Scotland, Walsingham does too. [Extracted from the article]

Since early 2020, pundits and commentators have scrutinized the history of past pandemics for answers to a series of questions shaped by COVID-19: what strategies have worked in the past to stem the spread of contagion? How long do epidemics typically last? Are vaccines an effective "magic bullet" against infectious diseases? The coronavirus crisis spawned comparisons to diseases as epidemiologically diverse as influenza, the Black Death, cholera, HIV/AIDS, and polio, as people excavated the records of past pandemics to try to make sense of the worst public-health disaster for over a century. Policy proscriptions emerged quickly from these historical analogies. Many public-health experts pointed to the trajectories of epidemics like the 1918–19 influenza outbreak and SARS to convey the gravity of what would happen if political leaders did not quickly and decisively issue stay-at-home-orders, close schools, and mandate social distancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The famous Moroccan traveller Muḥammad b. Baṭṭūṭa, who left Tangier in 1325, claims to have made a journey that took him across most of the then Islamicate world. The country in which he recounts having stayed the longest was India, where he says he remained from 1333 to 1341/1342, mostly in the Islamic Sultanate of Delhi. A long section of his Riḥla is dedicated to the sub-continent and modern historians of this region ascribe to it an important documentary value, although it has been argued that Ibn Baṭṭūṭa may have borrowed – not to imply copied – information from other sources in other parts of the work. As concerns India, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa speaks of two epidemics and one deadly disease that occurred in 1334–5 and 1344. Some scholars have referred to them as cholera, while others have suggested it was the plague – thus supporting the hypothesis that the medieval plague pandemic had struck India before reaching the Middle East. How did this confusion arise? What exactly does Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla relate? Do Indo-Persian sources confirm these epidemics? Do they and/or Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla allow us to discount the presence of the Medieval Plague in India, or rather do they assert it? In order to answer these questions, this paper analyses the information on the Indian epidemics in Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla and compares the text with its translations in the principal European languages and with Indo-Persian chronicles. These analyses reveal something of a lexical muddle which, in my opinion, has contributed to some errors and misunderstandings regarding the diseases in question. But another question arises: is it possible to read the information provided by Ibn Baṭṭūṭa and the Indian chronicles in a consilient way, that is, taking into account not only the analysis of written documents, but also the recent and current findings in genetics of plague, and in particular on the Black Death? Finally, an attempt is made to answer a question that has to be asked, particularly in light of the criticism often levelled at Ibn Baṭṭūṭa. Considering that in one of these events he claims to have witnessed the epidemic, is there any reason to suppose that he did not? Regarding the other two events that he did not claim to witness firsthand, is there any cause to doubt his claims? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Great Plague Scare of 1720: Disaster and Diplomacy in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World" by Cindy Ermus explores the impact of the plague outbreak in Marseilles in a transnational and transoceanic perspective. The book argues that the 1720 plague marked the beginning of centralized disaster management, challenging the traditional narrative of the disease's origin. It examines the reactions and measures taken in different locations, including Italy, Great Britain, Spain, and the French and Spanish colonies in the Atlantic World. The book provides a wide range of arguments and will be of interest to historians studying public health, commerce, and politics in the eighteenth-century maritime powers. [Extracted from the article]

Medieval city walls, bridges, and harbours stood at the interface between the worlds of man and nature. Wind, ice, rainwater, scour, tidal flows, littoral drift, erosion, silting, micro-organisms, and the growth of vegetation compromised the integrity of structural fabrics and choked up ditches, rivers, and harbour basins. These 'slow disasters' of incremental degradation were periodically punctuated by 'fast disasters' such as devastating floods or violent gales. To keep their public works from falling into ruin, civic authorities had to devise regular maintenance regimes and tackle intermittent large-scale repairs. Infrastructure sustainability became a particularly acute problem during the late middle ages. Climate change accelerated the intensity and frequency of environmental stressors, while urban populations declined in the wake of the Black Death. Economic disruptions were driving up the costs of building materials and labour while the customary sources of infrastructure incomes were shrinking. The growing mismatch in scale between rising infrastructure costs and falling resources was not just another wobble that could be corrected by a renewed mobilisation of traditional recovery mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scale of the rise in personal wealth following the Black Death calls the life-cycle hypothesis of consumption into consideration. Based on price level evidence, this paper shows for the first time that the wealth effect of the Black Death on economic activity continued in England for generations, up to 1450. Indeed, in the absence of consideration of the wealth effect, other influences on the price level do not even appear in the econometric analysis. The shift in tastes toward higher quality goods, luxuries and imports stemming from the per capita windfall for the survivors in the mid-fourteenth century plays a substantial part in the analysis. So does England's little influence on the relative prices of its imports relative to home goods. The separate effects of coinage, population, trade, wages and annual number of days worked for wages on the price level all also receive major attention and new results follow for adjustment in the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of the emergence and spread of the „Black Death“ has been extensively studied by numerous researchers around the world. This publication focuses on one of the main medical practices, which proved to be the most effective against the spread of the disease – quarantine. One of the earliest applications of quarantine were precisely in the lands of the Western Balkans. On July 27, 1377, the Senate of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) issued an order forbidding the entry of people arriving from regions with recorded cases of plague into the city. The infected were isolated on the island of Mrkan and in the Old Town (Cavtat) for a period of about one month. Related to the preventive measures against the plague, the population of Ragusa was forbidden to have contact with the isolated sick people. In case of violation of the ban, the offender also had to be isolated for a period of about a month. Persons specially designated by the Senate took care of the quarantined, supplying them with food and other essentials. In addition to examining the issue of the emergence of the concept of quarantine in Europe, the article also reviews information on the spread of the plague epidemic from the 14th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Documenta & Instrumenta is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Late antique plague has never been more contested. Recent scholarship has repeatedly questioned whether the Justinianic plague caused catastrophic mortality and supporters of the traditional narrative of a vast, depopulating sixth-century pandemic have dug in. Scholars have repeatedly assessed evidence thought to prove traditional narratives about the Justinianic plague, but never to everyone's liking. Things have gotten ugly and no resolution is in sight. To advance the debate and shift the focus, these pages review the use of the Black Death in accounts of the Justinianic plague. What follows demonstrates that the claim the sixth-century pandemic killed many millions is founded on centuries of uncritical treatment of late antique sources reinforced in recent generations via the overinterpretation of the first pandemic's plague diagnosis and the neglect of plague's ecological and epidemiological complexities. That the Justinianic plague was another Black Death underpins research agendas and influences the interpretation of data in diverse fields, but it is an unsubstantiated claim, one stemming from deficient interdisciplinarity and neither proven by current evidence nor provable with current methods. Only by strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration, it is proposed in closing, can we begin to remedy our first-pandemic plague problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]