BLACK DEATH: SOURCES CONCERNING THE EUROPEAN PLAGUE
Series One: Rare Printed Sources from the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, c1470-1822

Part 1: Sources, c1470-1621

This microfilm edition brings together a wide variety of rare printed sources, comprising some 230 volumes, covering the Black Death throughout Europe. There is material for Germany, France, Italy, England, Switzerland and Central Europe, opening up numerous possibilities for comparative research work. The material in this microfilm collection is organised by date, with the items for the period 1470 to 1621 appearing in Part 1. Items for 1622-1822 appear in Part 2.

This project is particularly strong for treatises giving suggestions, instructions and advice; short accounts of the particular sufferings of individual cities, towns or villages; recipes for treatments; notes on experiments; and historical observations looking at origins, causes and effects of The Plague. Over 50% of the items date from the years 1540 through to 1650.

Although the Black Death reached the shores of the eastern Mediterranean as early as autumn 1347, the printed materials in this project date from 1470. However, a number of items such as Relazione istorica della peste (Palermo 1745); De Peste (Leipzig 1683); and De Victus et medicinae ratione cu alio, tum pestilentiae tempore observanda, commentarius by Johannes Guinterius (1542) provide observations and retrospective analysis going back to earlier years.

Other items include:

- Johannes Jacobi, Regimen contra pestilentiam sive epidimiam reverendissimi domini kamiuti [vielm Kaminti] Episcopi Arusiensis [d.i. Bengt Krutsson]… Regimen Sanitatis per circulum anni valde utile. [Leipzig: Arnold von Kln, um 1493].
- Remde trs utile contre la peste, laquelle court prsent en plusieurs lieuz, speciallement par tout, nouvellement extraict de plusieurs expriences pour le salut de la chose publique. [Montpellier: Mortier de boys 1522].
- Rgime contre la pestilence faict et compos par messieurs les mdicins de la trs rnomme cit de Basle en Allemagne [Lyon [1530?]: Claude Nourry].
- Ein neurer, nutzlicher und grundtlicher Tractat von der Pestilentz. [Tubingen 1564].
- Trait de la peste; de la petite vrolle et rougeolle, avec une brefve description de la lpre. Ambroise Par. [Paris 1568].

The preface of this item is addressed to Monsieur Castellan, conseiller and medecin ordinarie du Roy, and premier de la Royne. Sixty two chapters of great detail include descriptions of various cases, analysis of causes, symptoms, discussions of remedies and other useful information. There is a chapter on the election of officials; Chapter 14 is entitled Des signes de la peste prsente; Chapter 15 is entitled Des signes mortels de la peste.

Chapter 48 is headed Pour arrester le flux de ventre. It begins "Si on cognoist le flux de ventre estre trop grd, et la vertu affaiblie, et qu’il vint de l’affectio de tous les intestins, alors le faut arrester quoy on procedera par remdes baillez tant par la bouche que par clystres, de peur que la vie du malade ne forte par le siege, parquoy on donnera manger aux malades de la bouillie faicte de farine de fourment avec une decoction d’eae; en laquelle on aura faict bouillir une grenade aigre, berberis, bol d’armenie, terre selle et semence de pavot de chacun une drachme".

The following interesting sonnet appears immediately after the contents page:-

"A La France:
Encor que la vertu d’ell’ mesme est honoree,
Contente du seul bien de son heureux dessin,
Si est ce que, l’ouvrier tendant bonne fin,
Son oeuvre d’un loyer doit estre decoree:
Et c’est pourquoy iadis une image doree
L’Attique fait dresser ce grand Medecin,
(Qui de leur air avoit corrig le venin)
Et mda qu’elle fut comme un Dieu adoree.
Quel loyer dc as tu, FRANCE, prepar
Qui puisse contenter ton Chirurgien Par,
Qui par son art t’a faict, q plus il ne te reste
Fors croire son consei, sans autre requerir,
Pour te contregarder, voire pour te guerir.
De rougeolle, et verolle, et vers, et lepre, et peste?"
F Thoris Bellion

Further items include:-

- Catalogue medicamentorum simplicium et facile parabilium pestilentiae veneno adversantium, Antonii Schneeberger [1605].
- De la Manire de prserver de la pestilence, et de guerir, selon les bons autheurs. Benoit Textor [Lyon, 1550].
- Prservatifs et remdes contre la peste, ou le capucin charitable, enseignant le mthode pour remedier aux grandes misres que la peste a cotume de causer parmy les peuples Maurice de Toulon [Paris 1668].

This microfilm set enables scholars to ask all sorts of questions about the European plague. What was its impact? How quickly did it spread? How did different regions try to cope with such devastating problems? Were the effects different in towns and cities compared to rural areas? What longer term effects did it have? Rural insurrection, Peasant revolt, the Flagellants, religious persecution, crime and violence, social and economic disruption and dislocation… this microfilm set has much to offer students of the socio-economic, not to mention demograpic, implications of the great pestilence.

As Natalie Zemon Davis, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Princeton University states:

"The Black Death is one of those momentous events in Europe that touched every feature of life, from economics and wage labour to art history and hopes for the after life, from concepts of social alliance to new forms of hospital architecture. The pamphlet literature it inspired is one of the most interesting of the end of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, and the collection from the library at Wolfenbttel is remarkable in its geographical range and time span. Scholars will find this new selection of Plague pamphlets a wonderful resource."

This is backed up by the comments of Professor Mary Lindemann of the Carnegie Mellon University who writes:

"Plague and pestilence, like war and famine, powerfully shaped the consciousness of early modern Europeans. Much studied but still so little understood, the experience of epidemic disease is one of the central themes of social history. The Wolfenbttel collection of plague tracts and pamphlets offers rich material for any scholar of early modern Europe interested in medicine and public health, in mentalité, in the growth of early modern governments and bureaucracies, or in social relations more generally."

We would very much like to acknowledge the help and support of all those who have worked on this project at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbttel, in particular Dr Werner Arnold for his help and collaboration in organising the filming of this material.