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131-557: Painted some ten years before the Black Death spread over medieval Europe in 1348, the cycle enjoyed an extraordinary success after that date, and was often imitated throughout Italy during the Renaissance . The youngsters' party enjoying themselves in a beautiful garden while Death piles mounds of corpses all around is likely to have inspired the setting of Giovanni Boccaccio 's literary masterpiece The Decameron , written

262-415: A maritime nation began to grow and reached its apex in the 11th century, when it acquired traditional fame as one of the four main historical maritime republics of Italy ( Repubbliche Marinare ). At that time, the city was a very important commercial centre and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its powers in 1005 through the sack of Reggio Calabria in

393-557: A "pestilential fever" ( febris pestilentialis ) in his work On the Signs and Symptoms of Diseases ( De signis et symptomatibus aegritudium ). The phrase mors nigra , 'black death', was used in 1350 by Simon de Covino (or Couvin), a Belgian astronomer, in his poem "On the Judgement of the Sun at a Feast of Saturn" ( De judicio Solis in convivio Saturni ), which attributes

524-684: A chapel in her honor in Assisi at the Basilica of Saint Francis (an attribution rejected by later scholars), and several prominent commissions at various abbeys and convents in Pisa . Vasari does not attribute the famed Pisan frescoes now associated with Buonamico to the painter, but rather, credits him with four frescoes preserved in the Campo Santo, depicting the Biblical narrative on the creation of

655-507: A combined fleet of Pisan and Sicilian ships, led by the emperor's son Enzo , attacked a Genoese convoy carrying prelates from northern Italy and France, next to the isle of Giglio ( Battle of Giglio ), in front of Tuscany ; the Genoese lost 25 ships, while about a thousand sailors, two cardinals, and one bishop were taken prisoner. After this major victory, the council in Rome failed, but Pisa

786-467: A conjunction of planets had caused "a great pestilence in the air" ( miasma theory ). Muslim religious scholars taught that the pandemic was a "martyrdom and mercy" from God, assuring the believer's place in paradise. For non-believers, it was a punishment. Some Muslim doctors cautioned against trying to prevent or treat a disease sent by God. Others adopted preventive measures and treatments for plague used by Europeans. These Muslim doctors also depended on

917-750: A description of the disease modelled on Thucydides 's account of the 5th century BCE Plague of Athens , noting the spread of the Black Death by ship between maritime cities. Nicephorus Gregoras , while writing to Demetrios Kydones , described the rising death toll, the futility of medicine, and the panic of the citizens. The first outbreak in Constantinople lasted a year, but the disease recurred ten times before 1400. Carried by twelve Genoese galleys, plague arrived by ship in Sicily in October 1347;

1048-540: A dominant position in the markets of southern France. The war began in 1165 on the Rhône , when an attack on a convoy, directed to some Pisan trade centres on the river, by the Genoese and their ally, the count of Toulouse , failed. Pisa, though, was allied to Provence. The war continued until 1175 without significant victories. Another point of attrition was Sicily , where both the cities had privileges granted by Henry VI . In 1192, Pisa managed to conquer Messina. This episode

1179-512: A few years after the spread of the Black Death (1348–1353). Giovanni Boccaccio in his Decameron and Franco Sacchetti in his Il trecentonovelle both describe Buonamico Buffalmacco as being a practical joker. Boccaccio features Buonamico along with his friends and fellow painters Calandrino and Bruno in several tales (Day VIII, tales 3, 6, and 9; Day IX, tales 3 and 5) . Typically in these stories, Buonamico uses his wits to play tricks on his friends and associates: convincing Calandrino that

1310-528: A rue du Pipi. Pigs, cattle, chickens, geese, goats and horses roamed the streets of medieval London and Paris. Medieval homeowners were supposed to police their housefronts, including removing animal dung, but most urbanites were careless. William E. Cosner, a resident of the London suburb of Farringdon Without, received a complaint alleging that "men could not pass [by his house] for the stink [of] . . . horse dung and horse piss." One irate Londoner complained that

1441-634: A small sporadic outbreak characteristic of transmission from rodents to humans with no wide-scale impact. According to Achtman, the dating of the plague suggests that it was not carried along the Silk Road , and its widespread appearance in that region probably postdates the European outbreak. Additionally, the Silk Road had already been heavily disrupted before the spread of the Black Death; Western and Middle Eastern traders found it difficult to trade on

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1572-454: A stone he possesses ( heliotrope ) confers invisibility (VIII, 3), stealing a pig from Calandrino (VIII, 6), convincing the physician Master Simone of an opportunity to ally himself with the Devil (VIII, 9), convincing Calandrino that he has become pregnant (IX, 3), convincing Calandrino that a particular scroll can cause a woman to fall in love with him (IX, 5). Throughout the stories, Buonamico

1703-539: A team led by Galina Eroshenko placed its origins more specifically in the Tian Shan mountains on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China. However more recent research notes that the previous sampling contained East Asian bias and that sampling since then has discovered strains of Y. pestis in the Caucasus region previously thought to be restricted to China. There is also no physical or specific textual evidence of

1834-703: Is a city and comune (municipality) in Tuscany , central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea . It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa . Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower , the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of

1965-500: Is based on a driverless "horizontal funicular " that travels the distance in 5 minutes, with a 5-minute frequency, having an intermediate stop at parking station San Giusto/Aurelia. Consorzio Pisano Trasporti , also known as CPT , was a Società consortile a responsabilità limitata (Scarl) that operated since 2005 the local public transport in Pisa and in the province . Became subsidiary of Compagnia Toscana Trasporti Nord in 2012 and

2096-415: Is characterized by cool to mild winters and hot summers. This transitional climate allows Pisa to have summers with moderate rainfall . Rainfall peaks in autumn. Snow is rare. The highest officially recorded temperature was 39.5 °C (103.1 °F) on 22 August 2011 and the lowest was −13.8 °C (7.2 °F) on 12 January 1985. In Pisa there was a festival and game fr:Gioco del Ponte (Game of

2227-760: Is frequently depicted at work painting in the houses of notable gentlemen in Florence but eager to take time to eat, drink, and be merry. Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari included a biography of Buonamico Buffalmacco in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550–1568), in which he tells several anecdotes about his comic escapades. Vasari tells of Buonamico's youthful tricking of his master Tafi during his apprenticeship, various pranks and tricks that Buonamico played on his patrons , and his habit of embedding texts within his paintings. Dismissed by Vasari as just another of

2358-481: Is needed to the range of (especially non- commensal ) animals that might be involved in the transmission of plague. Archaeologist Barney Sloane has argued that there is insufficient evidence of the extinction of numerous rats in the archaeological record of the medieval waterfront in London, and that the disease spread too quickly to support the thesis that Y. pestis was spread from fleas on rats; he argues that transmission must have been person to person. This theory

2489-568: Is still contested. It is speculated that rats aboard Zheng He 's ships in the 15th century may have carried the plague to Southeast Asia , India , and Africa. Research on the Delhi Sultanate and the Yuan dynasty shows no evidence of any serious epidemic in fourteenth-century India and no specific evidence of plague in 14th-century China, suggesting that the Black Death may not have reached these regions. Ole Benedictow argues that since

2620-587: Is still the seat of an archbishopric . Besides its educational institutions, it has become a light industrial centre and a railway hub. It suffered repeated destruction during World War II . Since the early 1950s, the US Army has maintained Camp Darby just outside Pisa, which is used by many US military personnel as a base for vacations in the area. Pisa has a borderline humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification : Cfa ) and Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa ). The city

2751-528: Is supported by research in 2018 which suggested transmission was more likely by body lice and fleas during the second plague pandemic . Academic debate continues, but no single alternative explanation for the plague's spread has achieved widespread acceptance. Many scholars arguing for Y. pestis as the major agent of the pandemic suggest that its extent and symptoms can be explained by a combination of bubonic plague with other diseases, including typhus , smallpox , and respiratory infections . In addition to

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2882-469: Is the main railway station and is located along the Tyrrhenic railway line . It connects Pisa directly with several other important Italian cities such as Rome , Florence , Genoa , Turin , Naples , Livorno , and Grosseto . Pisa San Rossore links the city with Lucca (20 minutes north-east of Pisa) and Viareggio and is also reachable from Pisa Centrale . It is a minor railway station located near

3013-627: Is very old. Homer used it in the Odyssey to describe the monstrous Scylla , with her mouths "full of black Death" ( Ancient Greek : πλεῖοι μέλανος Θανάτοιο , romanized :  pleîoi mélanos Thanátoio ). Seneca the Younger may have been the first to describe an epidemic as 'black death', ( Latin : mors atra ) but only in reference to the acute lethality and dark prognosis of disease. The 12th–13th century French physician Gilles de Corbeil had already used atra mors to refer to

3144-571: The Campo Santo (the monumental cemetery). The medieval complex includes the above-mentioned four sacred buildings, the hospital and few palaces. All the complex is kept by the Opera (fabrica ecclesiae) della Primaziale Pisana , an old non profit foundation that has operated since the building of the Cathedral in 1063 to maintain the sacred buildings. The area is framed by medieval walls kept by

3275-612: The Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus granted them special mooring and trading rights. In all these cities, the Pisans were granted privileges and immunity from taxation, but had to contribute to the defence in case of attack. In the 12th century, the Pisan quarter in the eastern part of Constantinople had grown to 1,000 people. For some years of that century, Pisa was the most prominent commercial and military ally of

3406-705: The Byzantines of Ravenna (what "military expedition by Pope Gregory against the Byzantine Empire" ): Pisa was the sole Byzantine centre of Tuscia to fall peacefully in Lombard hands, through assimilation with the neighbouring region where their trading interests were prevalent. Pisa began in this way its rise to the role of main port of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea and became the main trading centre between Tuscany and Corsica , Sardinia , and

3537-871: The Mamluk Sultanate , cultural center of the Islamic world , and the largest city in the Mediterranean Basin ; the Bahriyya child sultan an-Nasir Hasan fled and more than a third of the 600,000 residents died. The Nile was choked with corpses despite Cairo having a medieval hospital, the late 13th-century bimaristan of the Qalawun complex . The historian al-Maqrizi described the abundant work for grave-diggers and practitioners of funeral rites ; plague recurred in Cairo more than fifty times over

3668-619: The Roman Empire before the reign of Trajan , six centuries before arriving at Pelusium in the reign of Justinian I . In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause of the Plague of Justinian (541–549 CE, with recurrences until 750) was Y . pestis . This is known as the first plague pandemic . In 610, the Chinese physician Chao Yuanfang described a "malignant bubo" "coming in abruptly with high fever together with

3799-603: The Tyrrhenian Sea . When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict and rivalry was born between these major marine republics. Between 1030 and 1035, Pisa went on to defeat several rival towns in Sicily and conquer Carthage in North Africa . In 1051–1052, the admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica , provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063, Admiral Giovanni Orlandi, coming to

3930-476: The Y. pestis strain responsible for the Black Death as both the ancestor of later plague epidemics—including the third plague pandemic —and the descendant of the strain responsible for the Plague of Justinian . In addition, plague genomes from prehistory have been recovered. DNA taken from 25 skeletons from 14th-century London showed that plague is a strain of Y. pestis almost identical to that which hit Madagascar in 2013 . Further DNA evidence also proves

4061-573: The bell tower of the cathedral , known as "the leaning Tower of Pisa", is the most famous image of the city, it is one of many works of art and architecture in the city's Piazza del Duomo , also known, since the 20th century, as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), to the north of the old town center. The Piazza del Duomo also houses the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and

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4192-471: The black rats that travelled on Genoese ships, spreading through the Mediterranean Basin and reaching North Africa , West Asia , and the rest of Europe via Constantinople , Sicily , and the Italian Peninsula . There is evidence that once it came ashore, the Black Death mainly spread from person-to-person as pneumonic plague , thus explaining the quick inland spread of the epidemic, which

4323-538: The gavocciolo had been and still was an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they showed themselves. This was followed by acute fever and vomiting of blood . Most people died two to seven days after initial infection. Freckle-like spots and rashes, which may have been caused by flea-bites , were identified as another potential sign of plague. Pisa Pisa ( / ˈ p iː z ə / PEE -zə ; Italian: [ˈpiːza] or [ˈpiːsa] )

4454-553: The germ theory of disease . Until then streets were usually unhygienic, with live animals and human parasites facilitating the spread of transmissible disease . By the early 14th century, so much filth had collected inside urban Europe that French and Italian cities were naming streets after human waste. In medieval Paris, several street names were inspired by merde, the French word for "shit". There were rue Merdeux, rue Merdelet, rue Merdusson, rue des Merdons and rue Merdiere—as well as

4585-404: The poll tax of the year 1377. Estimates of plague victims are usually extrapolated from figures for the clergy. Mathematical modelling is used to match the spreading patterns and the means of transmission . In 2018 researchers suggested an alternative model in which "the disease was spread from human fleas and body lice to other people". The second model claims to better fit the trends of

4716-443: The " Neolithic decline " around 3000 BCE, in which European populations fell significantly. This Y. pestis may have been different from more modern types, with bubonic plague transmissible by fleas first known from Bronze Age remains near Samara . The symptoms of bubonic plague are first attested in a fragment of Rufus of Ephesus preserved by Oribasius ; these ancient medical authorities suggest bubonic plague had appeared in

4847-485: The 15th and early 16th centuries, and in the 16th and 17th centuries was transferred to other languages as a calque : Icelandic : svarti dauði , German : der schwarze Tod , and French : la mort noire . Previously, most European languages had named the pandemic a variant or calque of the Latin : magna mortalitas , lit.   'Great Death'. The phrase 'black death' – describing Death as black –

4978-722: The 15th century, access to the sea became more difficult, as the port was silting up and was cut off from the sea. When in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded the Italian states to claim the Kingdom of Naples , Pisa reclaimed its independence as the Second Pisan Republic. The new freedom did not last long; 15 years of battles and sieges by the Florentine troops led by Antonio da Filicaja , Averardo Salviati and Niccolò Capponi were made, but they failed to conquer

5109-457: The 1640s. Nestorian gravesites dating from 1338 to 1339 near Issyk-Kul have inscriptions referring to plague, which has led some historians and epidemiologists to think they mark the outbreak of the epidemic ; this is supported by recent direct findings of Y. pestis DNA in teeth samples from graves in the area with inscriptions referring to "pestilence" as the cause of death. Epidemics killed an estimated 25 million across Asia during

5240-452: The 18th century, the event was called the "pestilence" or "great pestilence", "the plague" or the "great death". Subsequent to the pandemic "the furste moreyn " (first murrain ) or "first pestilence" was applied, to distinguish the mid-14th century phenomenon from other infectious diseases and epidemics of plague. The 1347 pandemic plague was not referred to specifically as "black" in the time of occurrence in any European language, though

5371-527: The 1980s and the 1990s, featuring several world-class players such as Diego Simeone , Christian Vieri and Dunga during this time. The club play at the Arena Garibaldi – Stadio Romeo Anconetani , opened in 1919 and with a capacity of 25,000. Shooting was one of the first sports to have their own association in Pisa. The Società del Tiro a Segno di Pisa was founded on July 9, 1862. In 1885, they acquired their own training field. The shooting range

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5502-585: The Arno river. Although throughout history there have been several uncertainties about the origin of the city of Pisa, excavations made in the 1980s and 1990s found numerous archaeological remains, including the fifth century BC tomb of an Etruscan prince, proving the Etruscan origin of the city, and its role as a maritime city, showing that it also maintained trade relations with other Mediterranean civilizations. Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city. Virgil , in his Aeneid , states that Pisa

5633-418: The Black Death in 14th century China. As a result, China's place in the sequence of the plague's spread is still debated to this day. According to Charles Creighton, records of epidemics in 14th-century China suggest nothing more than typhus and major Chinese outbreaks of epidemic disease post-date the European epidemic by several years. The earliest Chinese descriptions of the bubonic plague do not appear until

5764-513: The Black Death, because there were actually four strains of Yersinia pestis that became predominant in different parts of the world. Mongol records of illness such as food poisoning may have been referring to the Black Death. Another theory is that the plague originated near Europe and cycled through the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Russia before making its way to China. Other historians, such as John Norris and Ole Benedictaw, believe

5895-511: The Bridge) which was celebrated (in some form) in Pisa from perhaps the 1200s down to 1807. From the end of the 1400s the game took the form of a mock battle fought upon Pisa's central bridge ( Ponte di Mezzo ). The participants wore quilted armor and the only offensive weapon allowed was the targone , a shield-shaped, stout board with precisely specified dimensions. Hitting below the belt was not allowed. Two opposing teams started at opposite ends of

6026-582: The Byzantine Empire, overcoming Venice itself. In 1113, Pisa and Pope Paschal II set up, together with the count of Barcelona and other contingents from Provence and Italy (Genoese excluded), a war to free the Balearic Islands from the Moors ; the queen and the king of Majorca were brought in chains to Tuscany. Though the Almoravides soon reconquered the island, the booty taken helped

6157-494: The Genoese attacked several galleys on their way home to the motherland, and lasted until 1133. The two cities fought each other on land and at sea, but hostilities were limited to raids and pirate-like assaults. In June 1135, Bernard of Clairvaux took a leading part in the Council of Pisa , asserting the claims of Pope Innocent II against those of Pope Anacletus II , who had been elected pope in 1130 with Norman support, but

6288-633: The Genoese predominance in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Pisa strengthened its relationship with its traditional Spanish and French bases (Marseille, Narbonne , Barcelona , etc.) and tried to defy the Venetian rule of the Adriatic Sea . In 1180, the two cities agreed to a nonaggression treaty in the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic, but the death of Emperor Manuel Comnenus in Constantinople changed

6419-674: The Islamic city of Almería in al-Andalus . Mecca became infected in 1348 by pilgrims performing the Hajj . In 1351 or 1352, the Rasulid sultan of the Yemen , al-Mujahid Ali, was released from Mamluk captivity in Egypt and carried plague with him on his return home. During 1349, records show the city of Mosul suffered a massive epidemic, and the city of Baghdad experienced a second round of

6550-461: The Islamic world in 1347–52. However, there is a conspicuous lack of evidence for pandemic disease on the scale of the Black Death in China at this time. War and famine – and the diseases that typically accompanied them – probably were the main causes of mortality in the final decades of Mongol rule. Monica Green suggests that other parts of Eurasia outside the west do not contain the same evidence of

6681-585: The Italian maritime republics . The city is also home to the University of Pisa , which has a history going back to the 12th century, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa , founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies . Most believe the hypothesis that the origin of the name Pisa comes from Etruscan and means 'mouth', as Pisa is at the mouth of

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6812-541: The Late Middle Ages ), the European population did not regain its 14th century level until the 16th century. Outbreaks of the plague recurred around the world until the early 19th century. European writers contemporary with the plague described the disease in Latin as pestis or pestilentia , 'pestilence'; epidemia , 'epidemic'; mortalitas , 'mortality'. In English prior to

6943-424: The Mediterranean and the prominence of the merchant class urged a modification in the city's institutes. The system with consuls was abandoned, and in 1230, the new city rulers named a capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain") as civil and military leader. Despite these reforms, the conquered lands and the city itself were harassed by the rivalry between the two families of Della Gherardesca and Visconti . In 1237

7074-816: The Pisan crusaders were led by their archbishop Daibert , the future patriarch of Jerusalem . Pisa and the other Repubbliche Marinare took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the Eastern coastal cities of the Levant . In particular, the Pisans founded colonies in Antiochia , Acre, Jaffa , Tripoli , Tyre , Latakia , and Accone. They also had other possessions in Jerusalem and Caesarea , plus smaller colonies (with lesser autonomy) in Cairo , Alexandria , and of course Constantinople , where

7205-774: The Pisans in their magnificent programme of buildings, especially the cathedral , and Pisa gained a role of pre-eminence in the Western Mediterranean . In the following years, the powerful Pisan fleet, led by archbishop Pietro Moriconi , drove away the Saracens after ferocious battles. Though short-lived, this Pisan success in Spain increased the rivalry with Genoa. Pisa's trade with Languedoc , Provence ( Noli , Savona , Fréjus , and Montpellier ) were an obstacle to Genoese interests in cities such as Hyères , Fos , Antibes , and Marseille . The war began in 1119 when

7336-444: The Pisans violated it by blockading the port of Brindisi in Apulia . In the following naval battle, they were defeated by the Venetians. The war that followed ended in 1206 with a treaty in which Pisa gave up all its hopes to expand in the Adriatic, though it maintained the trading posts it had established in the area. From that point on, the two cities were united against the rising power of Genoa and sometimes collaborated to increase

7467-484: The Silk Road by 1325 and impossible by 1340, making its role in the spread of plague less likely. There are no records of the symptoms of the Black Death from Mongol sources or writings from travelers east of the Black Sea prior to the Crimean outbreak in 1346. Others still favor an origin in China. The theory of Chinese origin implicates the Silk Road, the disease possibly spreading alongside Mongol armies and traders, or possibly arriving via ship—however, this theory

7598-431: The Visconti family from Milan and eventually to Florence again. Livorno took over the role of the main port of Tuscany. Pisa acquired a mainly cultural role spurred by the presence of the University of Pisa , created in 1343, and later reinforced by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (1810) and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (1987). Pisa was the birthplace of the important early physicist Galileo Galilei . It

7729-436: The aid of the Norman Roger I , took Palermo from the Saracen pirates. The gold treasure taken from the Saracens in Palermo allowed the Pisans to start the building of their cathedral and the other monuments which constitute the famous Piazza del Duomo . In 1060, Pisa engaged in its first battle with Genoa . The Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. Pope Gregory VII recognised in 1077

7860-435: The ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram . Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast between Genoa (then a small village) and Ostia . Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians and Gauls . In 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus . In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium . Emperor Augustus fortified

7991-489: The apex of Pisa's power, but also spurred the resentment of other cities such as Lucca , Massa , Volterra , and Florence , thwarting their aim to expand towards the sea. The clash with Lucca also concerned the possession of the castle of Montignoso and mainly the control of the Via Francigena , the main trade route between Rome and France. Last, but not least, such a sudden and large increase of power by Pisa could only lead to another war with Genoa. Genoa had acquired

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8122-412: The appearance of a bundle of nodes beneath the tissue." The Chinese physician Sun Simo who died in 652 also mentioned a "malignant bubo" and plague that was common in Lingnan ( Guangzhou ). Ole Jørgen Benedictow believes that this indicates it was an offshoot of the first plague pandemic which made its way eastward to Chinese territory by around 600. A report by the Medical Faculty of Paris stated that

8253-429: The archbishop and the Emperor Frederick II intervened to reconcile the two rivals, but the strains continued. In 1254, the people rebelled and imposed 12 Anziani del Popolo ("People's Elders") as their political representatives in the commune. They also supplemented the legislative councils, formed of noblemen, with new People's Councils, composed by the main guilds and by the chiefs of the People's Companies. These had

8384-402: The bites of fleas whose midguts had become obstructed by replicating Y. pestis several days after feeding on an infected host. This blockage starves the fleas, drives them to aggressive feeding behaviour, and causes them to try to clear the blockage via regurgitation , resulting in thousands of plague bacteria flushing into the feeding site and infecting the host. The bubonic plague mechanism

8515-461: The bridge fight there. The fighters arrived fully armored, wearing helmets, each carrying their banner, which was planted at both ends of the bridge, which is quite wide and long. The battle is fought with certain wooden implements made for this purpose, which they wear over their arms and are attached to them, with which they pummel each other so intensely that I saw several of them carried away with bloody and crushed heads. Victory consists of capturing

8646-468: The bridge, in the same way as the fistfights in Venice between the it:Castellani and the Nicolotti ." In 1927 the tradition was revived by college students as an elaborate costume parade. In 1935 Vittorio Emanuele III with the royal family witnessed the first revival of a modern version of the game, which has been pursued in the 20th and 21st centuries with some interruptions and varying degrees of enthusiasm by Pisans and their civic institutions. While

8777-520: The bridge. The object of the two opposing teams was to penetrate, drive back, and disperse the opponents' ranks and to thereby drive them backwards off the bridge. The struggle was limited to forty-five minutes. Victory or defeat was immensely important to the team players and their partisans, but sometimes the game was fought to a draw and both sides celebrated. In 1677 the battle was witnessed by Dutch travelling artist Cornelis de Bruijn . He wrote: "While I stayed in Livorno , I went to Pisa to witness

8908-418: The bubonic infection, others point to additional septicemic and pneumonic forms of plague, which lengthen the duration of outbreaks throughout the seasons and help account for its high mortality rate and additional recorded symptoms. In 2014, Public Health England announced the results of an examination of 25 bodies exhumed in the Clerkenwell area of London, as well as of wills registered in London during

9039-434: The city walls of Kaffa to infect the inhabitants, though it is also likely that infected rats travelled across the siege lines to spread the epidemic to the inhabitants. As the disease took hold, Genoese traders fled across the Black Sea to Constantinople , where the disease first arrived in Europe in summer 1347. The epidemic there killed the 13-year-old son of the Byzantine emperor , John VI Kantakouzenos , who wrote

9170-402: The city. Vitellozzo Vitelli with his brother Paolo were the only ones who actually managed to break the strong defences of Pisa and make a breach in the Stampace bastion in the southern west part of the walls, but he did not enter the city. For that, they were suspected of treachery and Paolo was put to death. However, the resources of Pisa were getting low, and at the end, the city was sold to

9301-454: The coast. However, it was a maritime city, with ships sailing up the Arno. In the 90s AD, a baths complex was built in the city. During the last years of the Western Roman Empire , Pisa did not decline as much as the other cities of Italy, probably due to the complexity of its river system and its consequent ease of defence. In the seventh century, Pisa helped Pope Gregory I by supplying numerous ships in his military expedition against

9432-473: The colony into an important port and changed the name to Colonia Iulia obsequens . Pisa supposedly was founded on the shore, but due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about 11 km (7 mi) north of the Arno's, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 km (2.5 mi) away from the coast. Currently, it is located 9.7 km (6 mi) from

9563-460: The command of Uguccione della Faggiuola . Eventually, however, after a long siege, Pisa was occupied by Florentines in 1405. Florentines corrupted the capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain"), Giovanni Gambacorta, who at night opened the city gate of San Marco. Pisa was never conquered by an army. In 1409, Pisa was the seat of a council trying to set the question of the Great Schism . In

9694-418: The continent. According to some epidemiologists, periods of unfavorable weather decimated plague-infected rodent populations, forcing their fleas onto alternative hosts, inducing plague outbreaks which often peaked in the hot summers of the Mediterranean and during the cool autumn months of the southern Baltic region . Among many other culprits of plague contagiousness, pre-existing malnutrition weakened

9825-598: The debate about the cause of the Black Death, and unambiguously demonstrates that Y. pestis was the causative agent of the epidemic plague that devastated Europe during the Middle Ages". In 2011 these results were further confirmed with genetic evidence derived from Black Death victims in the East Smithfield burial site in England. Schuenemann et al. concluded in 2011 "that the Black Death in medieval Europe

9956-634: The disease spread rapidly all over the island. Galleys from Kaffa reached Genoa and Venice in January 1348, but it was the outbreak in Pisa a few weeks later that was the entry point into northern Italy. Towards the end of January, one of the galleys expelled from Italy arrived in Marseilles . From Italy , the disease spread northwest across Europe, striking France , Spain , Portugal, and England by June 1348, then spreading east and north through Germany , Scotland and Scandinavia from 1348 to 1350. It

10087-544: The disease. Symptoms of the plague include fever of 38–41 °C (100–106 °F), headaches, painful aching joints , nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise . Left untreated, 80% of victims die within eight days. Contemporary accounts of the pandemic are varied and often imprecise. The most commonly noted symptom was the appearance of buboes (or gavocciolos ) in the groin, neck and armpits, which oozed pus and bled when opened. Boccaccio 's description: In men and women alike it first betrayed itself by

10218-466: The emergence of certain tumours in the groin or armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg ... From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous. As

10349-538: The end came when the Arno started to change course, preventing the galleys from reaching the city's port up the river. The nearby area also likely became infested with malaria . The true end came in 1324, when Sardinia was entirely lost to the Aragonese . Always Ghibelline, Pisa tried to build up its power in the course of the 14th century, and even managed to defeat Florence in the Battle of Montecatini (1315), under

10480-469: The expression "black death" had occasionally been applied to fatal disease beforehand. "Black death" was not used to describe the plague pandemic in English until the 1750s; the term is first attested in 1755, where it translated Danish : den sorte død , lit.   'the black death'. This expression as a proper name for the pandemic had been popularized by Swedish and Danish chroniclers in

10611-541: The fifteen years before the Black Death reached Constantinople in 1347. The evidence does not suggest, at least at present, that these mortality crises were caused by plague. Although some scholars, including McNeill and Cao, see the 1333 outbreak as a prelude to the outbreaks in Europe from the late 1340s to the early 1350s, scholars of the Yuan and Ming periods remain skeptical about such an interpretation. Nonetheless,

10742-462: The first clear reports of the Black Death come from Kaffa , the Black Death most likely originated in the nearby plague focus on the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea . Demographic historians estimate that China's population fell by at least 15 per cent, and perhaps as much as a third, between 1340 and 1370. This population loss coincided with the Black Death that ravaged Europe and much of

10873-491: The following one and a half centuries. During 1347, the disease travelled eastward to Gaza by April; by July it had reached Damascus , and in October plague had broken out in Aleppo . That year, in the territory of modern Lebanon , Syria , Israel , and Palestine , the cities of Ascalon , Acre , Jerusalem , Sidon , and Homs were all infected. In 1348–1349, the disease reached Antioch . The city's residents fled to

11004-529: The immune response, contributing to an immense decline in European population. The disease struck various regions in the Middle East and North Africa during the pandemic , leading to serious depopulation and permanent change in both economic and social structures. By autumn 1347, plague had reached Alexandria in Egypt, transmitted by sea from Constantinople via a single merchant ship carrying slaves. By late summer 1348, it reached Cairo , capital of

11135-443: The jurisdiction over the Pisan countryside, the Pisans were granted freedom of trade in the whole empire, the coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere , a half of Palermo , Messina , Salerno and Naples , the whole of Gaeta , Mazara , and Trapani , and a street with houses for its merchants in every city of the Kingdom of Sicily . Some of these grants were later confirmed by Henry VI , Otto IV , and Frederick II . They marked

11266-606: The late Bronze Age . The immediate territorial origins of the Black Death and its outbreak remain unclear, with some evidence pointing towards Central Asia , China, the Middle East , and Europe. The pandemic was reportedly first introduced to Europe during the siege of the Genoese trading port of Kaffa in Crimea by the Golden Horde army of Jani Beg in 1347. From Crimea, it was most likely carried by fleas living on

11397-519: The maritime power of Pisa and the town never fully recovered; in 1290, the Genoese destroyed forever the Porto Pisano (Pisa's port), and covered the land with salt . The region around Pisa did not permit the city to recover from the loss of thousands of sailors from the Meloria, while Liguria guaranteed enough sailors to Genoa. Goods, however, continued to be traded, albeit in reduced quantity, but

11528-544: The medicine for all pain, come to give us our last supper". In the Trionfo della Morte ("Triumph of Death"), a group of leisurely young aristocrats and their animals occupy the central part of the fresco. These rich young men and women riding horses, surrounded by their decorative hunting dogs, have gone on a pleasant journey. But suddenly, their path, somewhere deep in the wood, is barred by three open coffins with corpses in different degrees of decomposition . Everybody in

11659-561: The municipal administration. Other sights include: San Pietro in Vinculis . Known as San Pierino , it is an 11th-century church with a crypt and a cosmatesque mosaic on the floor of the main nave. Football is the main sport in Pisa; the local team, A.C. Pisa , currently plays in the Serie B (the second highest football division in Italy), and has had a top flight history throughout

11790-557: The name atra mors for the 14th-century epidemic first appeared in a 1631 book on Danish history by J. I. Pontanus : "Commonly and from its effects, they called it the black death" ( Vulgo & ab effectu atram mortem vocitabant ). Research from 2017 suggests plague first infected humans in Europe and Asia in the Late Neolithic - Early Bronze Age . Research in 2018 found evidence of Yersinia pestis in an ancient Swedish tomb, which may have been associated with

11921-407: The new "Laws and customs of the sea" instituted by the Pisans, and emperor Henry IV granted them the right to name their own consuls, advised by a council of elders. This was simply a confirmation of the present situation, because in those years, the marquis had already been excluded from power. In 1092, Pope Urban II awarded Pisa the supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, and at the same time raising

12052-515: The ninth century, the emergence of the Saracen pirates prompted the city to expand its fleet. In the following years, this fleet gave the town an opportunity for more expansion. In 828, Pisan ships assaulted the coast of North Africa . In 871, they took part in the defence of Salerno from the Saracens. In 970, they gave also strong support to Otto I's expedition, defeating a Byzantine fleet in front of Calabrese coasts. The power of Pisa as

12183-585: The north, but most of them ended up dying during the journey. Within two years, the plague had spread throughout the Islamic world, from Arabia across North Africa. The pandemic spread westwards from Alexandria along the African coast, while in April 1348 Tunis was infected by ship from Sicily. Tunis was then under attack by an army from Morocco; this army dispersed in 1348 and brought the contagion with them to Morocco, whose epidemic may also have been seeded from

12314-563: The people that scarce the tenth person of any sort was left alive. Geoffrey the Baker , Chronicon Angliae Plague was reportedly first introduced to Europe via Genoese traders from their port city of Kaffa in the Crimea in 1347. During a protracted siege of the city in 1345–1346, the Mongol Golden Horde army of Jani Beg —whose mainly Tatar troops were suffering from the disease— catapulted infected corpses over

12445-408: The period, which supported the pneumonic hypothesis. Currently, while osteoarcheologists have conclusively verified the presence of Y. pestis bacteria in burial sites across northern Europe through examination of bones and dental pulp , no other epidemic pathogen has been discovered to bolster the alternative explanations. The importance of hygiene was not recognized until the 19th century and

12576-668: The plague likely originated in Europe or the Middle East, and never reached China. Norris specifically argues for an origin in Kurdistan rather than Central Asia. The seventh year after it began, it came to England and first began in the towns and ports joining on the seacoasts, in Dorsetshire , where, as in other counties, it made the country quite void of inhabitants so that there were almost none left alive. ... But at length it came to Gloucester , yea even to Oxford and to London, and finally it spread over all England and so wasted

12707-483: The plague to an astrological conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. His use of the phrase is not connected unambiguously with the plague pandemic of 1347 and appears to refer to the fatal outcome of disease. The historian Cardinal Francis Aidan Gasquet wrote about the Great Pestilence in 1893 and suggested that it had been "some form of the ordinary Eastern or bubonic plague". In 1908, Gasquet said use of

12838-530: The plague's death toll, as the rat-flea-human hypothesis would have produced a delayed but very high spike in deaths, contradicting historical death data. Lars Walløe argued that these authors "take it for granted that Simond's infection model, black rat → rat flea → human, which was developed to explain the spread of plague in India, is the only way an epidemic of Yersinia pestis infection could spread". Similarly, Monica Green has argued that greater attention

12969-522: The port, assaulted the castles in the surrounding areas, and drove back an army sent by Roger from Aversa . This victory brought Pisa to the peak of its power and to a standing equal to Venice. Two years later, its soldiers sacked Salerno . In the following years, Pisa was one of the staunchest supporters of the Ghibelline party. This was much appreciated by Frederick I . He issued in 1162 and 1165 two important documents, with these grants: Apart from

13100-525: The power to ratify the laws of the Major General Council and the Senate. The decline is said to have begun on August 6, 1284, when the numerically superior fleet of Pisa, under the command of Albertino Morosini , was defeated by the brilliant tactics of the Genoese fleet, under the command of Benedetto Zaccaria and Oberto Doria , in the dramatic naval Battle of Meloria . This defeat ended

13231-401: The presence of DNA / RNA with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques for Y. pestis from the tooth sockets in human skeletons from mass graves in northern, central and southern Europe that were associated archaeologically with the Black Death and subsequent resurgences. The authors concluded that this new research, together with prior analyses from the south of France and Germany, "ends

13362-615: The remarkably high mortality rates during the Datong mortality should discourage us from rejecting the possibility of localized/regional outbreaks of plague in different parts of China, albeit differing in scale from, and unrelated to, the pandemic mortality of the Black Death. What we lack is any indication of a plague pandemic that engulfed vast territories of the Yuan Empire and later moved into western Eurasia through Central Asia. According to John Norris, evidence from Issyk-Kul indicates

13493-545: The role of Y. pestis and traces the source to the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan . Researchers are hampered by a lack of reliable statistics from this period. Most work has been done on the spread of the disease in England, where estimates of overall population at the start of the plague vary by over 100%, as no census was undertaken in England between the time of publication of the Domesday Book of 1086 and

13624-420: The runoff from the local slaughterhouse had made his garden "stinking and putrid", while another charged that the blood from slain animals flooded nearby streets and lanes, "making a foul corruption and abominable sight to all dwelling near." In much of medieval Europe, sanitation legislation consisted of an ordinance requiring homeowners to shout, "Look out below!" three times before dumping a full chamber pot into

13755-444: The scene including men, women, and even the animals are horrified by this terrible and palpable presence of Death . The unsupportable stench hits their noses and the abhorring scene of cruel truth dismays them. The elder monk standing above them teaches the youngsters a lesson about life and death by reading from a scroll. Vasari discusses various paintings by the artist which no longer exist, and many of which had already perished by

13886-465: The situation. Soon, attacks on Venetian convoys were made. Pisa signed trade and political pacts with Ancona , Pula , Zara , Split , and Brindisi ; in 1195, a Pisan fleet reached Pola to defend its independence from Venice, but the Serenissima soon reconquered the rebel sea town. One year later, the two cities signed a peace treaty, which resulted in favourable conditions for Pisa, but in 1199,

14017-552: The south of Italy. Pisa was in continuous conflict with some ' Saracens ' - a medieval term to refer to Arab Muslims - who had their bases in Corsica, for control of the Mediterranean. In 1017, Sardinian Giudicati were militarily supported by Pisa, in alliance with Genoa, to defeat the Saracen King Mugahid, who had settled a logistic base in the north of Sardinia the year before. This victory gave Pisa supremacy in

14148-482: The southern coasts of France and Spain. After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, but soon recovered. Politically, it became part of the duchy of Lucca . In 860, Pisa was captured by vikings led by Björn Ironside . In 930, Pisa became the county centre (status it maintained until the arrival of Otto I ) within the mark of Tuscia . Lucca

14279-435: The street. Early Christians considered bathing a temptation. With this danger in mind, St. Benedict declared, "To those who are well, and especially to the young, bathing shall seldom be permitted." St. Agnes took the injunction to heart and died without ever bathing. According to a team of medical geneticists led by Mark Achtman , Yersinia pestis "evolved in or near China" over 2,600 years ago. Later research by

14410-577: The time of Vasari's writing in the 16th century. He describes a series of paintings at the convent of Faenza in Florence (already destroyed by the 16th century), works for the abbey of Settimo (now also lost), tempera paintings for the monks of the abbey of Certosa (also in Florence), and frescoes in the Badia at Florence. He describes a series of paintings depicting the life of Saint Catherine of Siena in

14541-614: The town to the rank of archbishopric. Pisa sacked the Tunisian city of Mahdia in 1088. Four years later, Pisan and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castilla to push El Cid out of Valencia . A Pisan fleet of 120 ships also took part in the First Crusade , and the Pisans were instrumental in the taking of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land , the ships did not miss the occasion to sack some Byzantine islands;

14672-601: The trading benefits in Constantinople. In 1209 in Lerici , two councils for a final resolution of the rivalry with Genoa were held. A 20-year peace treaty was signed, but when in 1220, the emperor Frederick II confirmed his supremacy over the Tyrrhenian coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere , the Genoese and Tuscan resentment against Pisa grew again. In the following years, Pisa clashed with Lucca in Garfagnana and

14803-475: The western United States. Y. pestis was discovered by Alexandre Yersin , a pupil of Louis Pasteur , during an epidemic of bubonic plague in Hong Kong in 1894; Yersin also proved this bacterium was present in rodents and suggested the rat was the main vehicle of transmission. The mechanism by which Y. pestis is usually transmitted was established in 1898 by Paul-Louis Simond and was found to involve

14934-504: The witty painter's gags, which his "clumsy" contemporaries had misunderstood and foolishly imitated, the frescoes located in the Campo Santo of Pisa are actually scattered with texts, a possible indication of the veracity of Vasari's remark. In the scroll over the cripple beggars in the center of the Trionfo della Morte ("Triumph of Death"), for instance, it's written: "Since prosperity has completely deserted us, O Death, you who are

15065-472: The world through the building of Noah's Ark , which later scholars have instead attributed to Piero di Puccio of Orvieto. Vasari further presents conflicting information regarding Buonamico's death, dating it to the year 1340, but also stating that he was still alive in 1351. In any case, he is said to have died at the age of 78, in poverty, and to have been buried at the hospital of Santa Maria Novella , in Florence. Black Death The Black Death

15196-490: The writings of the ancient Greeks. Due to climate change in Asia , rodents began to flee the dried-out grasslands to more populated areas, spreading the disease. The plague disease, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis , is enzootic (commonly present) in populations of fleas carried by ground rodents , including marmots , in various areas, including Central Asia , Kurdistan , West Asia , North India , Uganda , and

15327-524: Was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as 50 million people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and spread by fleas and through the air. One of the most significant events in European history, the Black Death had far-reaching population, economic, and cultural impacts. It

15458-607: Was almost completely destroyed during World War II. Pisa has an international airport known as Pisa International Airport or normally Galileo Galilei located in San Giusto neighbourhood in Pisa. It is served by twenty-one airlines connecting eleven domestic and sixty-one international destinations (seasonal included). The airport is connected to Pisa Centrale railway station by a people mover system 2 km (1.2 mi) long, called Pisamover inaugurated in March 2017. It

15589-561: Was already a great center by the times described; and gives the epithet of Alphēae to the city because it was said to have been founded by colonists from Pisa in Elis , near which the Alpheius river flowed. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti founded the town 13 centuries before the start of the common era. The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if

15720-494: Was also dependent on two populations of rodents: one resistant to the disease, which act as hosts , keeping the disease endemic , and a second that lacks resistance. When the second population dies, the fleas move on to other hosts, including people, thus creating a human epidemic . Definitive confirmation of the role of Y. pestis arrived in 2010 with a publication in PLOS Pathogens by Haensch et al. They assessed

15851-456: Was caused by a variant of Y. pestis that may no longer exist". Later in 2011, Bos et al. reported in Nature the first draft genome of Y. pestis from plague victims from the same East Smithfield cemetery and indicated that the strain that caused the Black Death is ancestral to most modern strains of Y. pestis . Later genomic papers have further confirmed the phylogenetic placement of

15982-714: Was defeated by the Florentines at Castel del Bosco. The strong Ghibelline position of Pisa brought this town diametrically against the Pope, who was in a dispute with the Holy Roman Empire , and indeed the pope tried to deprive Pisa of its dominions in northern Sardinia . In 1238, Pope Gregory IX formed an alliance between Genoa and Venice against the empire, and consequently against Pisa, too. One year later, he excommunicated Frederick II and called for an anti-Empire council to be held in Rome in 1241. On May 3, 1241,

16113-512: Was excommunicated. This extreme measure was only removed in 1257. Anyway, the Tuscan city tried to take advantage of the favourable situation to conquer the Corsican city of Aleria and even lay siege to Genoa itself in 1243. The Ligurian republic of Genoa, however, recovered fast from this blow and won back Lerici , conquered by the Pisans some years earlier, in 1256. The great expansion in

16244-420: Was faster than would be expected if the primary vector was rat fleas causing bubonic plague. In 2022, it was discovered that there was a sudden surge of deaths in what is today Kyrgyzstan from the Black Death in the late 1330s; when combined with genetic evidence, this implies that the initial spread may not have been due to Mongol conquests in the 14th century, as previously speculated. The Black Death

16375-507: Was followed by a series of battles culminating in the Genoese conquest of Syracuse in 1204. Later, the trading posts in Sicily were lost when the new Pope Innocent III , though removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his predecessor Celestine III , allied himself with the Guelph League of Tuscany, led by Florence. Soon, he stipulated a pact with Genoa, too, further weakening the Pisan presence in southern Italy. To counter

16506-532: Was introduced into Norway in 1349 when a ship landed at Askøy , then spread to Bjørgvin (modern Bergen ). Finally, it spread to northern Russia in 1352 and reached Moscow in 1353. Plague was less common in parts of Europe with less-established trade relations, including the majority of the Basque Country , isolated parts of Belgium and the Netherlands , and isolated Alpine villages throughout

16637-400: Was not recognised outside Rome. Innocent II resolved the conflict with Genoa, establishing Pisan and Genoese spheres of influence. Pisa could then, unhindered by Genoa, participate in the conflict of Innocent II against king Roger II of Sicily . Amalfi , one of the maritime republics (though already declining under Norman rule), was conquered on August 6, 1136; the Pisans destroyed the ships in

16768-516: Was one the companies of the consortium ONE Scarl to accomplish the contract stipulated with the Regione Toscana for the public transport in the 2018-2019 period. The fleet consisted of 70 urban, 15 suburban and 260 intercity buses. Since 1 November 2021 the public local transport is managed by Autolinee Toscane . The city is served by two railway stations available for passengers: Pisa Centrale and Pisa San Rossore . Pisa Centrale

16899-467: Was the beginning of the second plague pandemic . The plague created religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history. The origin of the Black Death is disputed. Genetic analysis suggests Yersinia pestis bacteria evolved approximately 7,000 years ago, at the beginning of the Neolithic , with flea-mediated strains emerging around 3,800 years ago during

17030-478: Was the capital but Pisa was the most important city, as in the middle of tenth century Liutprand of Cremona , bishop of Cremona , called Pisa Tusciae provinciae caput ("capital of the province of Tuscia"), and a century later, the marquis of Tuscia was commonly referred to as "marquis of Pisa". In 1003, Pisa was the protagonist of the first communal war in Italy, against Lucca. From the naval point of view, since

17161-578: Was the second great natural disaster to strike Europe during the Late Middle Ages (the first one being the Great Famine of 1315–1317 ) and is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of the European population, as well as approximately 33% of the population of the Middle East. There were further outbreaks throughout the Late Middle Ages and, also due to other contributing factors (the Crisis of

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