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The purpose of this project is to pull together profiles of people directly affected by the Black Death. Across Asia and Europe, at least a third of the population died, more in some places, less than others; the population of the Old World fell from an estimated 450 million to 350-375 million people.
Add in profiles of people who died during the plague years of the Black Death; they won't all have died of the Black Death itself, but a high percentage of them will; and all of them were part of that first quick and dreadful plague. The plague would continue to recur, but it never again came back with the same ferocity.
Add in also the witnesses, the people who told the story, even if they survived; Boccaccio being an example.
Here are the years of the Black Death, by region:
China: 1332-1347
Constantinople (Istanbul): 1347-1348
Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine: 1347-1348
Crimea: 1347-1348
Sicily: 1347-1348
Antioch: 1348-1349
Italy, Spain, Portugal, England: 1348-1349
Scandinavia: 1349-1350
Mecca, Baghdad, Mosul: 1349-1350
Northwest Russia: 1351-1352
- ******** Most of the witnesses -- the writers of about 400 chronicles or literary works, and 200 medical tracts -- are unknown. Those whose names we have usually don't show up in the genealogical databases, because they were not connected to the genealogical lines we've been able to trace back to the Middle Ages. Such writers include:
John of Reading, a monk at Westminster
Marchione de Coppo Stefanus, an historian from Florence
Friar John Clyn, a Franciscan monk at Kilkenny
Guglielmo Cortusi of Padua, an historian
Ibn-al-Wardi, a Syrian historian who later died of the plague himself
Agnolo di Tura del Grasso, an Italian historian
William Langland, an English poet
Jean de Venette, a Carmelite friar in Paris
John of Fordun, a Scottish historian
Jean-Noel Biraben, a French physician
Michele da Piazza, an historian from Sicily
Muhammed ibn Battuta, a Moroccan historian
Abi Gafar Ahmed ibn Khatimah, Spanish physician
Abu Abdallah Muhammed ibn al-Khatib Lisad-ad Din, Moroccan physician and historian
Stephanus from Padua, Italian physician
Geoffrey le Baker (also called Walter of Swynbroke), an English historian
Research Aids
Bray, R.S. (1996). Armies of pestilence: The impact of disease on history. New York: Barnes and Noble Books.
Cantor, N.F. (2001). In the wake of the plague: The Black Death and the world it made. New York: Free Press.
Gottfried, R.S. (1983). The Black Death: Natural and human disaster in medieval Europe. New York: Free Press.
Kelly, J. (2005). The great mortality: An intimate history of the Black Death, the most devastating plague of all time. New York: Harper Collins.
Nikiforuk, A. (1993). The fourth horseman: A short history of epidemics, plagues, famine, and other scourges. New York: M. Evans and Co.
Orent, W. (2004). Plague: The mysterious past and terrifying future of the world's most dangerous disease. New York: Free Press.
Ziegler, P. (1969). The Black Death.