Philip Ziegler - The Black Death

T HERE are remarkably few full-length studies dealing with the Black Death as a whole or even in a country or group of countries. The most important of these is still that by Cardinal Gasquet though many of his facts have now been disproved and his conclusions shown to be invalid. Stickers study gives the widest coverage for Europe as a whole and Hoenigers for Germany. The others are of slight importance.

More useful material on a national or international scale is often to be found in books not dealing exclusively with the Black Death (Coultons MediaevalPanorama, for instance, contains more of value than his monograph mentioned above) or in more recent essays and articles. In this and subsequent sections I have marked with an asterisk sources of particularly valuable information.

Among works on epidemiology, medical history or bubonic plague, those of particular relevance to the Black Death are:

Innumerable studies exist dealing in whole or in part with the Black Death or its effects in specific towns or areas. Some of these, for instance Dr Carpentiers study of Orvieto, are of the greatest importance ; others contain little except an odd anecdote or two and some inaccurate statistics. All those cited below have contributed something of value to this book. The Victoria County Histories, though varying greatly in quality from county to county, are in general a source of much valuable material for England.