Open History Book

The Black Death

1338 – 1346: From the Tian Shan to Caffa

About 1340Eurasia in 1340 The diseaseBacterium, flea and rat 1338 – 1339The gravestones of the Chüy valley, 1338–1339 1339 – 1346Across the Golden Horde, 1339–1346 1346The siege of Caffa, 1346

1347: Across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean

Spring – summer 1347Constantinople, 1347 1347Orhan’s lands, 1347 Autumn 1347Alexandria, autumn 1347 October – December 1347Messina, October 1347

November 1347 – February 1348: The ports of the West

November 1347 – January 1348Marseille and the Rhône, November 1347 – January 1348 December 1347 – February 1348Genoa and Pisa, winter 1347–1348 December 1347 – January 1348Split, Ragusa and Venice, December 1347 – January 1348 February – March 1348Languedoc, February – March 1348

March – May 1348: Florence, Tunis and Barcelona

March – June 1348Florence, spring 1348 April – June 1348Tunis and the Maghreb, April 1348 April – May 1348Mallorca and Catalonia, April – May 1348 May – August 1348Siena and central Italy, May 1348 May – June 1348Naples and the Hungarian army, May 1348

June – December 1348: From Damascus to London

June – August 1348Bologna, Padua and the Alps, June 1348 April – July 1348Gaza, Jerusalem and Damascus, April – July 1348 June – August 1348Melcombe and the West Country, June – August 1348 August – September 1348Bordeaux and the Atlantic coast, August – September 1348 August – December 1348Paris, autumn 1348 September – November 1348The poison accusation, September 1348 October 1348 – January 1349Cairo, autumn 1348 October – December 1348London, autumn 1348

1348: Towns, rulers and doctors

1348Clement VI at Avignon, 1348 1348Pistoia and Venice, 1348 1348 – 1349The doctors of 1348 1348 – 1402Milan and the places spared

1349: The burnings, the flagellants and the north

January – March 1349The burnings, January – March 1349 April – June 1349Vienna and the Danube, spring 1349 April – September 1349England, 1349 August 1348 – 1349Ireland, 1348–1349 June – December 1349The flagellants, summer – autumn 1349 Autumn 1348 – December 1349Bergen and Norway, autumn 1349 June 1348 – November 1349Ibn Battuta goes home, 1348–1349 August – December 1349Tournai, Flanders and northern France, 1349

1350 – 1353: The last lands

Late 1349 – 1350Scotland, 1349–1350 March 1350Alfonso XI at Gibraltar, March 1350 April – December 1350Lübeck, Denmark and Sweden, 1350 1352 – 1353Pskov, Novgorod and Moscow, 1352–1353

1353 – 1720: After the plague

1346 – 1353Counting the dead 1349 – 1381Wages, labour laws and revolts, 1349–1381 1361 – 1375The plague returns, 1361–1375 1377 – 1468Ragusa’s thirty days, 1377 1665 – 1722London 1665 and Marseille 1720

1338 – 1353

The Black Death

The plague of 1346 to 1353, from the Tian Shan and the siege of Caffa across the Mediterranean, Europe and the Middle East, the dead it left, and how towns, rulers and doctors answered it.