The Black Death (Manchester Medieval Sources)

Horrox has collected and translated dozens of first-hand accounts of the Black Death of 1348 - 1350. The first quarter of the book is comprised of narrative accounts of the arrival and devastation of the plague, from its arrival in Italy to its spread into Britain. The middle half shows the various responses (medical, religious and scientific) to the mortality, the final quarter of the book examining its reprocussions.All of the accounts presented here are from eye-witnessess to the terrible virulence and mortality of the Black Death. Although the majority of the documents are from Britain, there is a tremendous amount of similarity among them - the fear, shock, sadness and sense of fatalism as the disease ravaged Europe and the panic and social and economic dislocation that resulted. As a historian, I was fascinated; lay readers will almost certainly be similarly riveted by these accounts and the eerily familiar tone of the voices.

I have used this text in a literature class focused on writing about and in the wake of the 14th century plague. While there are other collections of primary sources on plague, the aspects of Horrox's work that make her edition superior are: 1) her breakdown of "narrative accounts" by geography, distinguishing between accounts from continental Europe and the British Isles--very useful in reminding students of differences among medieval cultures, and; 2) her own excellent introductions to each of the main sections ("Narrative Accounts," "Explanations and Responses," and "Consequences"). Horrox is a fine writer who imparts a lot of information with clarity and grace. Her engaging prose style helpfully explains the context of these writings and stimulates one's further interest.

I purchased The Black Death on a whim to expand upon a wider interest in Medieval Europe, and what I thought was going to be an interesting yet possibly dry academic tome turned out to be an engrossing and entirely captivating presentation of contemporary accounts of the Black Death (one of the deadliest pandemics in Human history) and the devastation it wrought, specifically in England where it devoured nearly half of the population between 1348 and '49. To say the accounts presented herein are absolutely surreal would be an understatement of pandemic proportions. The Black Death is beyond excellent, endlessly (albeit horrifically) fascinating, and highly recommended for both casual and academically inclined readers!

This book is a compilation of first-hand narratives (primary sources) by people who lived through the European plague. It's not a story about those years but would be useful for someone trying to get some idea about how a few people thought and reacted. Unfortunately, the narratives are extremely repetitive since very few during that time could write. It was primarily clergy who were literate and mostly they all have the same thing to say about it. And that is that a lot of people died and plague was visited on the land by an angry God out to punish everyone for their sins. And that's it in a nutshell. You get very little other perspective or details (those who might have had it couldn't write) and it makes for a really dull read. I had thought there would be a variety of narratives but there just aren't and so I was disappointed.

This is not for the casually interested reader, as it is comprised of primary source material. First time readers on the subject would be better off reading another book, such as Barbara Tuchman's great tome, "A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous Fourteenth Century." But any who are fascinated by the Great Mortality, as it was called contemporaneously, will find this a useful addition to their reading.

This is more than a history book about a plague. Nothing has really changed with time. Whenever a natural disaster occurs there is no shortage of people lining up to blame it on sin. Sad that these things are still happening. Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.

Very dry. Reads like an academic research paper. Also, many of the documents translated into 'modern' English are still very difficult to understand. Perhaps eggheads will enjoy this book, but everyone else should avoid. There are much better books available on the subject.

I'm taking a seminar in college entirely on the Black Death and the professor says that this is by far the best compilation of primary sources from the Black Death. Many very interesting stories and interesting documents.

This is a must have book for anyone interested in the Black Death, but who would find it difficult to access or read original contemporary documents. The reader comes face-to-face with people who lived through probably the greatest ever human catastrophe and who tried to understand what was happening. Particularly poignant is the extract from the Walsham-le-Willows manorial account which illustrates the horrendous death toll in just one small corner of Suffolk.

An excellent collection of contempary accounts of the first major outreak of bubonic plague in Europe. It is well annotated and indexed. Much to be recommended

Excellent, lots of details about how people coped with the plague. how it was the beginning of the break down of the manioral system.

an important book and a great entry for any degree student . a must read

Great