Black Death

Historical Context Essay

Ole Jürgen Benedictow (University of Oslo)
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This article focuses on an extraordinary murderous and notorious wave of epidemics of bubonic plague which raged in the years 1346-53. Much later, it acquired the name “the Black Death” which does not refer to any medical features of plague disease, but is usually assumed to be a mistranslation of the Latin term “mors atra” where the adjective “atra” may mean both “terrible” and “black”.

Nature and Pattern of Spread of the Black Death

Nature and Pattern of Spread of the Black Death

The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis and is basically a disease of rodents. Areas or regions where plague circulates continually in large wild rodent populations are called plague foci (plague reservoirs)and are found in many places in

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Citation: Benedictow, Ole Jürgen. "Black Death". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=126, accessed 28 March 2024.]

126 Black Death 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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