When the Black Death arrived in England in summer 1348, it had already hit China, middle Asia, the Crimea, and Sicily, and had begun moving inland to the rest of continental Europe. The death rate varied from region to region, but it is probably fair to say that it ranged from about 12% to 66% of the population. Some evidence points to the Black Death being the plague, a fever caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis; while other evidence suggests it was viral in origin. Regardless of the cause, it was extremely infectious and caused upheaval for decades everywhere it hit.
Bernard de Gordon, in his Lilium medicinae, enumerates some signs of impending plague in the chapter entitled “Pestitential fevers.” Each chapter in Lilium is divided into 6 sections: the first included the definitions, names, and types; the second, the causes; the third, the diagnosis; the fourth, the prognosis; the fifth, the treatment; and finally, the sixth – the clarification. The following is a loose translation of a 1551 version of Lilium, from the second section of “Pestilential fevers.”
“Pestilential fevers are those that arrive in the time when crops are destroyed and all is barren because of corrupted air and water. . .The signs of which are common, and some belong to fever. Signs of a future pestilence appear as stars called comets, with a round tail and a meteor, and the way in which it [the weather] is hot and then cold, and then hot and then cold again, many times in one day. When air is foggy and dense and it seems to be raining and not raining [at the same time], and when the summer is hot and humid, and when birds leave their nests and eggs, and many reptiles appear on the ground, these are signs of a future epidemic. The properties of the signs in the sick of a fever, that is, that the fever is pestilence, is that the heat is great outside & inside, and when he must tolerate ill-health, and when he has thirst and dryness of the tongue, and when breath is difficult, and when he has pain of the heart, and the stench comes from all of those things which are coming out from the body: breathing, sweating, vomiting, and urine.”
The Black Death was nearly always fatal; those infected usually only lived for several days after symptoms appeared. In some cities and towns, such as Avesbury, the dead were buried 20-60 a pit because of the rapid rate of infection and death. Symptoms of the bubonic plague start approximately 2-6 days after infection and include “shivering, then vomiting, headache, giddiness, and intolerance to light; pain in the back and limbs; and sleeplessness, apathy, or delirium. The most characteristic sign, however, is the subsequent appearance of one or more tender, swollen lymph nodes, or buboes…”[i]
Although Bernard completed Lilium in 1305, I find the Library’s copy to be so interesting as it is contemporary with the arrival of the Black Death in England. It offers a fairly ‘modern’ view of the Black Death just as it was being experienced by its readers.
I do wonder if our scribe of 10a 249 made it through the pandemic.
Sources:
Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Black Death.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 3 May 2017. https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death
Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Plague.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. https://www.britannica.com/science/plague
Demaitre, Luke E. Doctor Bernard de Gordon: Professor and practitioner. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1980.
Gordonii, Bernard. Opus Lilium medicinae inscruptum… Veneto, 1551.
Ibeji, Mike. “Black Death.” British History, Middle Ages. BBC. 10 March 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml
[i] Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, “Plague,” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.