Florence and the Black Death

In the late 1340s, a cataclysmic plague shook medieval Europe to its core. The bacterial disease, known to us as the Black Death, swept  across the continent, killing up to 50% of the population in less than 10 years—a staggering 75 million dead.   Florence,the most advanced community in the medieval world, was one of the worst victims of this disease.  . In its wake, the plague left a city that was utterly changed, forever altering the traditional structure of Florentine society and forcing a rethink  of every single system of civilization: food production and trade, the Church, political institutions, law, art, and more. Understanding  the Black Death  and its aftermath provides a highly revealing window  on medieval Florence and the forces that brought about the Renaissance.  Elaine Ruffolo traces the story of the Black Death in Florence and the artistic response to it in the 14th century and beyond.