Abu Giaphar Ahmed Ebn Ali Ebn Khatemar, a native of the city of Almeria, and one of the Arabian physicians, who, according to Casiri, was instructed in the history of the great pestilences, which nearly the entire world suffered from in the years of the Egira 748, 749, and 750, or of the Christian epoch 1347–48 and 1349, quotes the following passage: “The pestilence first broke out in Africa, whence it extended through all parts of Egypt and Asia, and finally attacked Italy, France, and Spain; but in the city of Almeria, where it raged with great malignity, it lasted nearly eleven months, namely, from the beginning of the month Rabiu, the first month of the year of the Egira 749, and of the Christian epoch 1348, until the commencement of the following year.” The work which contains the description of this pestilence consists of ten chapters, and is entitled ‘Morbi in posterum vitandi Descriptio et Remedia.’ Don Miguel Casiri makes mention of it in his Codex of the year 1780.
Abu Abdalla Mohamed Ben Alkhatrib, a native of Granada and brother of the other Alkhatrib, also wrote a work on the causes and cure of the pestilence that affected the city of Granada in the year of the Egira 749, and of our Lord 1348, entitled ‘Quæsita de morbo horribili perutilia;’ and Casiri alludes to this work also in his Codex.
Villanius, the historian of Florence, gives an account of a pestilence which commenced in A.D. 1346 in Upper Asia: it first appeared in Cathay; it arose from a most filthy smelling vapour, supposed to have proceeded from a certain fiery body, which either fell down from the atmosphere, or was eructated from the earth. This vapour, like a fire, consumed all that stood in its way,—animals, horses, trees, &c., for the space of fifteen days’ journey all around; and some most filthy little beasts furnished with feet and tails, as also worms and a small kind of snake in numberless multitudes, fell at the same time from the atmosphere upon the earth; the stench and putrefaction from these infected the very air and all the circumjacent regions. A pestilence having arisen from them, spread around, depopulating the whole of Asia, and subsequently Egypt, Greece, and Italy; thence it spread into France, Spain, and England, and at length into Germany. In the city of Florence alone, says Villanius, there perished 60,000 persons, but St. Anthony computes the number to have been 100,000. There prevailed about this period, or at the commencement of the year 1347, epidemic pestilence, in the shape of pleurisies, quinsies, and spotted fevers, which at last terminated in the real Oriental plague, with buboes and carbuncles: it was reported that 50,000 were carried off in London in one week, and the deaths at Norwich were almost equally numerous. About this period, 100,000 persons perished from pestilence at Venice: Lubeck lost 90,000, while the deaths from similar disease were computed at 200,000 in the kingdom of Spain. This pestilence persisted in many parts during the following year.
In the beginning of 1348 pestilence universally prevailed over Europe and in other quarters of the globe; it commenced in Syria, spread along the shores of the Pontic Sea, and of Greece and Illyria, passed into Italy and Sicily, and thence to the island of Mallorca: according to Zurita, it almost depopulated that island in less than a month, more than 5000 persons having been carried off by it. In the same year, continues Zurita, a general pestilence extended from the East to the ultimate boundaries of the West, comprising in its ravages the kingdom of Valencia and the principalities of Catalonia. In the month of June it broke out in the city of Valencia, and its virulence was such, especially in the maritime parts, that, as before noticed, scarcely any part of Europe escaped,—persons died suddenly; from Italy it passed into Sicily, Sardinia, and so on to Mallorca. So great was the mortality at Barcelona, that in the month of June, during the usual annual solemn procession, which caused a number of priests, &c., from Scio to be present, thousands died, and amongst them four magistrates and almost all the Council of Ciento. During this period, says another author, the signs of terrestrial commotions were exhibited in Europe.
During the reign of Edward III. it rained in England from Midsummer unto Christmas, when a pestilential period commenced. A disease termed ‘Sorte Diod,’—the black pestilence, or death,—committed the most terrific ravages; the lungs were principally affected. Fracastorius, in his ‘Syphilis,’ describes the malady. The translation runs thus:
“A hundred years twice told have took their flight
Since Saturn mix’d with Mars his hated light,
Who, with their baleful influence, did infest
The rich and potent nations of the East:
Hence raged a dreadful pest before unknown,