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Black Death: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As Great Mortality
Date 1347 - 1351
Location Europe
Context pandemic

Did You Know?

  • To avoid catching the disease, doctors rejected patients, priests declined to administer last rites, and shopkeepers shut their stores.
  • Iceland and Finland are the only areas that we are confident evaded the Black Death.
  • So many sheep died from the Black Death that there was a European wool shortage.
  • Islamic regions were heavily impacted by the Black Death. Repeated waves hit Cairo, the center of the Islamic world at that time.
  • The Black Death was not an airborne contagious disease and did not thrive during the winters, unlike many sicknesses.

Photos and Videos

Medieval illustration of Brotherhood of the Cross flagellants in robes and pointed hats walking in procession, some carrying a crucifix and banners, during the Black Death.
Microscope image showing clusters of pink-stained Yersinia pestis bacteria, the organism that causes plague, against a pale background.
Historical map of Europe showing the spread of the Black Death during the second pandemic from 1347 to 1351. The map uses color-coded regions to indicate the approximate year the plague first reached different areas, with arrows marking the spread along major marine and land routes, and major cities labeled. Areas relatively unaffected are shown in gray.
Oriental rat flea
An open medieval ledger book with handwritten Italian text on aged pages and a worn red leather cover, attributed to Pepo degli Albizzi of Florence.
Black Death
Medieval illustration of two flagellants, bare-chested and wearing skirts with yellow leggings, whipping themselves as part of a religious ritual during the Black Death in Europe.
Black Death
Peasants' Revolt
Black Death
Know the investigations of researchers using genomic information to reconstruct the cause and transmission routes of the bubonic plague and the Black Death
What was the Black Death?
Black Death
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