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The Medieval Globe 1 (2014) - Pandemic Disease In The Medieval World: Rethinking The Black Death, Monica H. Green, Carol Symes

The Medieval Globe

The plague organism (Yersinia pestis) killed an estimated 40% to 60% of all people when it spread rapidly through the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe in the fourteenth century: an event known as the Black Death. Previous research has shown, especially for Western Europe, how population losses then led to structural economic, political, and social changes. But why and how did the pandemic happen in the first place? When and where did it begin? How was it sustained? What was its full geographic extent? And when did it really end?

Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World is …

Introducing The Medieval Globe, Carol Symes

The Medieval Globe

The concept of “the medieval” has long been essential to global imperial ventures, national ideologies, and the discourse of modernity. And yet the projects enabled by this powerful construct have essentially hindered investigation of the world’s interconnected territories during a millennium of movement and exchange. The mission of The Medieval Globe is to reclaim this “middle age” and to place it at the center of global studies.

The Black Death And The Future Of The Plague, Michelle Ziegler

The Medieval Globe

This essay summarizes what we know about the spread of Yersinia pestis today, assesses the potential risks of tomorrow, and suggests avenues for future collaboration among scientists and humanists. Plague is both a re-emerging infectious disease and a developed biological weapon, and it can be found in enzootic foci on every inhabited continent except Australia. Studies of the Black Death and successive epidemics can help us to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks (and other pandemics) because analysis of medieval plagues provides a crucial context for modern scientific discoveries and theories. These studies prevent us from stopping at easy answers, …

Taking "Pandemic" Seriously: Making The Black Death Global, Monica H. Green

The Medieval Globe

This essay introduces the inaugural issue of The Medieval Globe, “Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death”. It suggests that the history of the pathogen Yersinia pestis, as it has now been reconstructed by molecular biology, allows for an expanded definition of the Second Plague Pandemic. Historiography of the Black Death has hitherto focused on a limited number of vector and host species, and on Western Europe and those parts of the Islamicate world touching the Mediterranean littoral. Biological considerations suggest the value of a broadened framework, one that encompasses an enlarged range of host species and …

The Anthropology Of Plague: Insights From Bioarcheological Analyses Of Epidemic Cemeteries, Sharon N. Dewitte

The Medieval Globe

Most research on historic plague has relied on documentary evidence, but recently researchers have examined the remains of plague victims to produce a deeper understanding of the disease. Bioarcheological analysis allows the skeletal remains of epidemic victims to bear witness to the contexts of their deaths. This is important for our understanding of the experiences of the vast majority of people who lived in the past, who are not typically included in the historical record. This paper summarizes bioarcheological research on plague, primarily investigations of the Black Death in London (1349–50), emphasizing what anthropology uniquely contributes to plague studies.

Plague Persistence In Western Europe: A Hypothesis, Ann G. Carmichael

The Medieval Globe

Historical sources documenting recurrent plagues of the “Second Pandemic” usually focus on urban epidemic mortality. Instead, plague persists in remote, rural hinterlands: areas less visible in the written sources of late medieval Europe. Plague spreads as fleas move from relatively resistant rodents, which serve as “maintenance hosts,” to an array of more susceptible rural mammals, now called “amplifying hosts.” Using sources relevant to plague in thinly populated Central and Western Alpine regions, this paper postulates that Alpine Europe could have been a region of plague persistence via its population of wild rodents, particularly the Alpine marmot.

Heterogeneous Immunological Landscapes And Medieval Plague: An Invitation To A New Dialogue Between Historians And Immunologists, Fabian Crespo, Matt B. Lawrenz

The Medieval Globe

Efforts to understand the differential mortality caused by plague must account for many factors, including human immune responses. In this essay we are particularly interested in those people who were exposed to the Yersinia pestis pathogen during the Black Death, but who had differing fates—survival or death—that could depend on which individuals (once infected) were able to mount an appropriate immune response as a result of biological, environmental, and social factors. The proposed model suggests that historians of the medieval world could make a significant contribution to the study of human health, and especially the role of human immunology in …

Corpus Christi Plays At York: A Context For Religious Drama, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

For roughly two centuries, the streets of the city of York were home to the annual performance of a cycle of mystery plays held in conjunction with the festival of Corpus Christi. Remarkable as the resilience of such an event is, no scholar has yet to survey fully the plays' urban setting, especially with a view to understanding how and why they might have continued to appeal to citizens and spectators. One theory has been that the City of York made the guilds perform the plays. Yet, as Davidson argues, this is not a satisfactory solution, despite the admittedly coercive …

Positional Symbolism And Medieval English Drama, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

When Actors Play God, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Medieval Drama, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

The Contribution Of W. L. Hildburgh, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Toward A Sociology Of Visual Forms In The English Medieval Theater, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

The Lost Coventry Drapers’ Play And Its Iconographic Context, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Medieval Puppet Theater At Witney, Oxfordshire, And Pentecost Ceremony At St. Paul’S, London, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Stage Gesture In Medieval Drama, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Women And Medieval Drama, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Gesture In Medieval Drama With Special Reference To The Doomsday Plays In The Middle English Cycles, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Jest And Earnest: Comedy In The Work Of The Wakefield Master, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Of Woodcut And Play, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

The Visual Arts And Drama, With Special Emphasis On The Lazarus Plays Of The Middle Ages, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

The Concept Of Purpose And Early Drama, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Interdisciplinary Drama Research At Western Michigan University, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

The Devotional Impulse And Drama At York, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

On The Uses Of Iconographic Study: The Example Of The Sponsus From St. Martial Of Limoges, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Thomas Sharp And The Stratford Hell Mouth, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Early Drama, Art, And Music: A New Project, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

From Tristia To Gaudium: Iconography And The York-Towneley Harrowing Of Hell, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Staging The York Creation, And Fall Of Lucifer, Clifford Davidson, Nona Mason

Clifford Davidson

No abstract provided.

Northern Spirituality And The Late Medieval Drama Of York, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson