Patterns of Plague: Changing Ideas about Plague in England and France, 1348-1750

by Lori Jones

Overview

For centuries, recurrent plague outbreaks took a grim toll on populations across Europe and Asia. While medical interventions and treatments did not change significantly from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth century, understandings of where and how plague originated did.Through an innovative reading of medical advice literature produced in England and France, Patterns of Plague explores these changing perceptions across four centuries. When plague appeared in the Mediterranean region in 1348, physicians believed the epidemic’s timing and spread could be explained logically and the disease could be successfully treated. This confidence resulted in the widespread and long-term circulation of plague tracts, which described the causes and signs of the disease, offered advice for preventing infection, and recommended therapies in a largely consistent style. What, where, and especially who was blamed for plague outbreaks changed considerably, however, as political, religious, economic, intellectual, medical, and even publication circumstances evolved.Patterns of Plague sheds light on what was consistent about plague thinking and what was idiosyncratic to particular places and times, revealing the many factors that influence how people understand and respond to epidemic disease.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780228010807
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	06/15/2022
Series:	McGill-Queen's Associated Medical Services Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society , #59
Pages:	408
Sales rank:	743,453
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lori Jones is a historian of medieval and early modern medicine at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa.

Table of Contents

Figures xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

A Note on Transcription and Translation xxi

Introduction: Writing Plague 3

1 Creating the Plague Tract 23

2 Producing the Plague Tract: From Author to Stationer, from Manuscript to Print 53

3 Setting Plague in Time: From Never Before to Now, from the Past to the Present 114

4 Seeing Plague in Space: From Elsewhere to Everywhere, from Here to There 161

5 Imagining the Oriental Plague: From Us to Them, from Fearsome Disease to Turkish Threat 215

Conclusion: Rewriting Patterns of Plague 241

Notes 251

Bibliography 319

Index 369

Editorial Reviews

"Not only an excellent insight into how plague tracts can be reinterpreted, but ... an example of how historical sources more generally can be reassessed in fruitful and fascinating ways." Medicine, Conflict, Survival


“Patterns of Plague is an innovative, well-crafted and important study in intellectual, cultural, and medical history. Jones's writing is sophisticated and her interpretations original and well-substantiated.” Mary Lindemann, University of Miami

From the Publisher