TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE Original small caps type is all capitals herein. Original italics is _surrounded with underscores_. See also the ENDNOTE. THE GREAT PESTILENCE. The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), NOW COMMONLY KNOWN AS The Black Death. BY FRANCIS AIDAN GASQUET, D.D., O.S.B. London: SIMPKIN MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LIMITED. 1893. Lewes: SOUTH COUNTIES PRESS LIMITED. CONTENTS. TO THE READER xi INTRODUCTION xiii CHAPTER I. THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE EPIDEMIC. First reports as to the sickness — General account of the epidemic in eastern countries — The great trade routes between Asia and Europe — The plague in the Crimea — Tartar siege of Caffa — Origin of the name "Black Death" — Symptoms of the disease — Constantinople is attacked; account of the epidemic by the Emperor Cantacuzene — Genoese traders carry the infection to Sicily — Effect in Messina and Catania 1-15 CHAPTER II. THE EPIDEMIC IN ITALY. Date of the arrival of the infected ships at Genoa — Striking sameness in all accounts — De Mussi's account of the beginning of the plague in Italy, specially in Genoa and Piacenza — Boccaccio's description of it in Florence — This confirmed by the historian Villani — Progress of the disease in Italy — Pisa — Padua, Siena, etc. — Petrarch's letter on the epidemic at Parma — Venice and its doctors — Description of the desolation by Bohemian students 16-33 CHAPTER III. PROGRESS OF THE PLAGUE IN FRANCE. Its arrival at Marseilles — A Parisian doctor's account of the epidemic at Montpellier — Avignon is attacked and suffers terribly — Contemporary account of its ravages by a Canon of the Low Countries — Gui de Chauliac, the Pope's physician — Spread of the infection in every direction — William of Nargis' description of the mortality in Paris — Philip VI. consults the medical faculty — Normandy — Amiens — Account of Gilles Le Muisis, Abbot of Tournay — M. Siméon Luce on the conditions of popular life in France in the Fourteenth century — Agrarian troubles follow the epidemic 34-57 CHAPTER IV. THE PLAGUE IN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.