The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe.
By Michele Clouse
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/31/6/1280
 

Relying on an impressive array of archival sources that covers a geographical range from Africa to India, Italy to Vietnam, Samuel Cohn Jr argues that the disease commonly known as the Black Death was something other than the rat-based bubonic plague whose bacillus was discovered in 1894. Cohn charges scientists and historians alike with having ignored, denied and even changed contemporary testimony when it conflicts with notions of how modern plague should behave. Cohn’s work re-examines the epidemiological evidence of the late-medieval plague and concludes that its cycles, seasonality, contagion, speed of transmission, the age and sex of its victims, and the occupational and topographical incidence of mortality not only differentiates late-medieval from modern plague, but also frees from suspicion two supposed protagonists of Western civilization—the rat and the flea. Furthermore, Cohn reassesses the connection between the Renaissance in Europe more broadly and finds that from ‘the utter despondency felt with the plague’s first strike, contemporaries expressed a new sense of confidence’ (p. 4)—a confidence derived from the swiftness with which Europeans adapted to their new bacillus.

Moving beyond the geographical limitations of the Sudhoff collection, Cohn engages the earliest extant burial records, letters, wills and testaments, saints’ lives, chronicles and other plague tracts to challenge our fundamental assumptions of the disease. Cohn’s ad fontes approach to the subject confirms the devastation and terror of the disease, but also brings to light distinct differences between the malady and the modern plague, such as speed of transmission, virulence and mortality, seasonality, and the ability to acquire immunity. The sources comment at length on the seeming ‘universality’ of the disease; that is, it appeared to move with lightning speed and hit far-reaching geographical areas within a short period of time. Alongside this ‘universality’ writers were concerned by its virulence and high rate of mortality, with many referring to it as the ‘Big Death’. The pattern of deaths further differentiates the two according to Cohn. For the late medieval disease, deaths occurred in a pattern along household clusters, with a significant number of infected people directly linked to exposure to another infected person within the same household. This pattern of deaths does not hold true for modern plague. Moreover, while the late-medieval disease attacked those in closest physical proximity to the infected (the doctors, priests, gravediggers and notaries), 19th and 20th century plague researchers found the ‘safest place during plague was the plague ward of hospitals‘(p. 123).

In terms of its seasonality, plague could occur at any time of year and could last through the year in places with wide variations in temperature and humidity. This seeming lack of seasonal specificity in light of narrow climatic restrictions on the reproductive cycle of the insect raises questions concerning the role of the rat and flea. Furthermore, Cohn claims that there is no extant account of a rat epizootic preceding a plague outbreak and those sources that do mention rats or mice do not single out rodents from other animals. Despite the problematic nature of the source material, Cohn suggests a possible pattern: autumn plague in the colder northern and central parts of Europe as well as the northernmost areas of Italy and summer outbreaks in the warmer zones of the Mediterranean. Cohn admits the often contradictory nature of this evidence, but challenges epidemiologists to re-examine such trends for alternate explanations.

Man’s ability to acquire natural immunity differentiates the two eras of plague most strikingly. During the second phase of plague immunity to the disease led to a new sense of medical progress and the records reveal a sense of optimism characterized by a tendency to move away from the astrological and omnipotent explanations prevalent in the earlier phase to social and political ones. Instead of a deep sense of despair and pessimism, by the second phase the sources reflect a new sense of optimism based on the efficacy of recipes and remedies. The quick acquisition of natural immunity to the disease furthered this growing sense of optimism as lowered mortality rates indicated successful medical intervention. This sense of optimism and hope spread beyond the medical realm and laid a foundation for the Renaissance not only in Italy but in far-reaching regions affected by the disease. Furthermore, man’s ability to survive the disease paralleled changes in his understanding of it and significantly altered his psychological and cultural experiences as the disease recurred throughout early modern Europe.

Fear of a repetition of the vast mortality typical of the late-medieval disease influenced the ground-breaking discoveries of the bacillus and the aetiology of modern plague in the 19th and 20th centuries. Histories of the disease of the past led to an unprecedented international scientific response on the one hand, but on the other, it led to a delay in the discovery of the modern plague’s epidemiology. Cohn cites case after case where scientists were aware of the distinctions in the diseases’ microbiology but went to almost ridiculous links to ‘square the circle’, maintaining the fallacy. Time and again scientists such as Manson, Hankin and Hirst confronted the difficult issues of speed of transmission and viability of contagion, but allowed the historical past to accompany them into the laboratory. Furthermore, he argues that the historical and scientific communities have overlooked and undervalued the role of the British in India. Untapped archival resources of the Indian Plague Commissions (documents based on fieldwork and data gathered by military and medical officials) bring to light the significant role the British played in epidemiological studies of a modern plague.

While modern scientific knowledge has generally enhanced our understanding of the medical world of the past, in the case of the plague it has been a hindrance. Contemporary scientists and historians continue to ‘square the circle’, for it has been much easier to ‘amend the paradigm than question the disease’ (p. 42). Cohn challenges the work of Le Roy Ladurie, Norman Cantor, Paul Slack, Ann Carmichael, Gottfried and Michael Dols (among others) for losing sight of, or explaining away, the evidence. ‘Even the most cited text on the BD, Boccaccio’s Decameron’, he argues, ‘is far from being the iron-clad testimony for cutaneous identity across the centuries‘ (p. 81). Cohn’s reassessment of oft-overlooked evidence (much of which is included in impressive appendices) and ability to look beyond modern plague as an explanation will challenge historians and scientists alike to re-evaluate the late-medieval and early modern malady. Well-conceived and well-argued, The Black Death Transformed will remain an important work for many years to come.