The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time

by John Kelly

The pogroms around Marseille not only pointed to this new form of plague-related anti-Semitism, they also heralded an important change in the nature of French anti-Semitism. Traditionally, Langue d’Oc—roughly, Mediterranean France—was the land of the troubadour; it was cosmopolitan, romantic, poetic, sensual, and tolerant. Jews had a long, mostly happy relationship with the south. Langue d’Oui—roughly, Atlantic France—was the land of the knight; it was ambitious, aggressive, resolute, and intolerant. The pogroms in the southern villages of La Baume, Apt, and Mezel were a signal that this historic division was coming to an end—that the north, which had long had political designs on the tolerant, more cosmopolitan south, was beginning to absorb the southern region culturally as well militarily.