The Middle Ages Quotes

“The Black Death, or bubonic plague, was first seen in Asia but in 1346 it reached the shore of the Black Sea; soon, merchants from Italy carried the disease home. The disease broke out in October 1347 in Messina and infected the entire peninsula by April of the following year. When it arrived in Paris in 1348, there were 800 people a day dying from the disease. The front lines of the plague’s progress were the cities, those growing, thriving, crowded centers of population. To put the number of deaths in perspective, by 1351, the population had been devastated; it was the equivalent of what the numbers would be if everyone in California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida had died. It would take 150 years for the population to return to its former numbers. The loss of life led to the loss of labor and scarcity of food. The ones who were most affected by this, the peasantry, were desperate.”
― Henry Freeman, The Middle Ages: A History From Beginning to End