Black Death Essay

The bubonic and pneumonic plagues of the fourteenth century, most commonly referred to as the Black Death, was one of the worst plagues to strike the world. With estimates of anywhere between a third to half of the population of Europe perishing due to these plagues it was not uncommon for most that survived this terrifying era to have personal accounts of this time. Many first-hand accounts of this era hold many similarities, but there are also subtle differences depending on location and also the time of which the plague had reached certain areas. This paper will specifically focus on two primary sources from this era of the Black Death. One account from Padua, Italy and another account from Vienna, Austria. Both accounts describe the plague …show more content…
However, the author of the plague in Padua, did not focus most of the attention of the passage on blaming God for all that happened. The passage instead focused more on the factual and scientific normalities of the plague. For instance, the author described the path of infection, the mortality rate, and the symptoms of the plague. Granted, this passage is rather short and does not really pursue any greater detail as of God’s role other than most likely being the source of the disease and comparing this plague to previous plagues and the destruction by God in the story of Noah. This passage, although short, mainly focuses on factual evidence of the plague rather than religious observations and beliefs. On the contrary, the passage from Vienna is longer and seems to focus less on the scientific portion of the plague and more on religious affairs and how the plague affected people and how they coped with the terror. The author also recounts how in the same year there were several other terrible events along with the plague such as a country stuck with paralysis, another suffering from a deadly rainfall, and another country tormented by fire. Although these may be accounts of possibly actual