In October 1347, a fleet of trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered on the docks were in for a nasty surprise...
In October 1347, a fleet of trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered on the docks were in for a nasty surprise when they went on board. Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead. Those still alive were mysteriously ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Aghast, Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the “death ships” out of the harbour and back to their origins in the Black Sea, but it was too late.
Over the next five years, the Black Death (more mundanely known as the “bubonic plague”) would dart across Europe, leaving a trail of death in its wake and wiping out almost one-third of the continent’s population. It didn’t entirely disappear until the beginning of the seventeenth century. And yet, despite its murderous effect, the Black Death was the making of modern Europe.
It played a central role in the advent of new population controls, in the establishment of universities, the spread of Christianity, the dissemination of vernacular culture, and even the rise of nationalism. In Italy alone, the Black Death marked the end of an era and the emergence of the Renaissance: that golden period of art, architecture and literature in...
