Content area
Full text
Encyclopedia of the Black Death. By Joseph P Byrne. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2012. 429 pages. Acid free $89 (ISBN 978-1-59884253-1). Ebook available (978-1-59884254-8), call for pricing.
For more than 1400 years, outbreaks and epidemics of plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and carried by flea-infested rats swept the western world via its trade routes, decimating populations and transforming all areas of society and culture. Encyclopedia of the Black Death is the first reference work to provide thorough A-to-Z coverage of the medieval world's most devastating cycle of plague, the Second Pandemic, which began with Europe's Black Death of 13471352, and continued to make the rounds in Europe and the Ottoman world until about 1840.
The encyclopedia is composed of some 300 entries, which trace an interdisciplinary path through the devastation of the Black Death and its impact on global history, scientific understanding, politics, religion, and literature. Byrne's coverage of the period is wide-ranging and eclectic, embracing key outbreaks in cities...