Title: The Black Death
Author: Philip Ziegler
Publisher: The Folio Society, 2006
Condition: Hardcover, with slipcase. With a map and colour plates. Some scratches to slipcase, otherwise excellent.
About the book:
The Black Death features a full black cloth cover with a design by Francis Mosley in red and gold. The end papers are red-grey in color with a map by Denys Baker. The book is housed in a black slipcase.
The plates reproduce medieval manuscripts and paintings. The fiddling skeleton from Mosley’s binding design is repeated on the title-page. This was the first in a series of historical ‘shockers’, dealing with death, disease and general foulness in the past.
About the Black Death (from Wikipedia):
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1348–50.
The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching the Crimea by 1346. From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. Spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe’s total population. All in all, the plague reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the 14th century.
The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe’s population to recover.
