TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Original small caps type is all capitals herein. Original italics is surrounded with underscores. See also the ENDNOTE.
THE GREAT PESTILENCE.
The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), NOW COMMONLY KNOWN AS The Black Death.
BY FRANCIS AIDAN GASQUET, D.D., O.S.B.
London: SIMPKIN MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LIMITED. 1893.
Lewes: SOUTH COUNTIES PRESS LIMITED.
CONTENTS.
TO THE READER xi
INTRODUCTION xiii
CHAPTER I.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE EPIDEMIC.
First reports as to the sickness — General account of the epidemic in eastern countries — The great trade routes between Asia and Europe — The plague in the Crimea — Tartar siege of Caffa — Origin of the name "Black Death" — Symptoms of the disease — Constantinople is attacked; account of the epidemic by the Emperor Cantacuzene — Genoese traders carry the infection to Sicily — Effect in Messina and Catania 1-15
CHAPTER II.
THE EPIDEMIC IN ITALY.
Date of the arrival of the infected ships at Genoa — Striking sameness in all accounts — De Mussi's account of the beginning of the plague in Italy, specially in Genoa and Piacenza — Boccaccio's description of it in Florence — This confirmed by the historian Villani — Progress of the disease in Italy — Pisa — Padua, Siena, etc. — Petrarch's letter on the epidemic at Parma — Venice and its doctors — Description of the desolation by Bohemian students 16-33