Buch, Englisch, 454 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm
Buch, Englisch, 454 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm
ISBN: 978-0-85115-943-0
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer
The many local studies on the Black Death published in a variety of languages and scholarly papers have for the first time been systematically collected and thoroughly analysed. The medical and epidemiological characteristics of the disease, its geographical origin, its spread across Asia Minor, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and the mortality in the countries and regions for which there are satisfactory studies, are clearly presented and thoroughly discussed. The pattern, pace and seasonality of spread revealed through close scrutiny of these studies exactly reflect current medical work and standard studies on the epidemiology of bubonic plague.
Benedictow's findings relating to the mortality caused by the Black Death are based on the meticulous study and synthesis of all available demographic studies. Published over the past forty years, most of them in widely dispersed local journals and local histories, this cumulative evidence, far-reaching in its implications, has gone largely unnoticed. This book makes it clear that the true mortality rate was far higher than has been previously thought. In the light of these findings, the discussion in the last part of the book showing the Black Death as a turning point in history takes on a new significance.