Povijesni prilozi, Vol. 26 No. 33, 2007.
Review article
Historiography about the mid-fourteenth century Black Death epidemic
Gordan Ravančić
; Hrvatski institut za povijest
Abstract
The Black Death left a deep mark on the late Middle Ages. Some historians have argued
that it crucially informed the subsequent development of medieval and early
modern European societies. It is for these reasons that Western historians produced
substantial scholarship on this topic. The number of the studies is large and it would
be impossible to discuss each and every one. And even if one decided to do so, this
text would be a dry list of references rather than an account of the key problems
that modern historiography has faced when studying the Black Death. Because of
the substantial scholarship on this epidemic, this essay will focus on the history of
Black Death in Europe, which will then in turn allow a study of the key theses and
questions examined in literature more generally.
Croatian historiography has hitherto paid little attention to this mid-fourteenth
century epidemic. This is rather surprising given the substantial interest that the
Croatian Middle Ages have received in the last three decades. But the histories of
diseases and epidemics in Croatia have been, by and large, studied by historians of
medicine only. They have applied their methodological tools to examine plague
epidemics in Dalmatia and Dubrovnik relatively well. Yet we need to pay more attention
to the mid-fourteenth century epidemics. The preserved archival material
allows at least a preliminary assessment. A systematic examination of the extant
sources should be followed up by studies into the effects of the Black Death upon
the society, economy and politics of the medieval Croatian territories.
Keywords
historiography; plague; Black Death; Middle Ages
Hrčak ID:
18750
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2007.
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