Europe: A woodcut depicting a praying skeleton, probably symbolic of the 'Black death', anonymous, c. 15th century. The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346.

---

Size: 3315px × 5260px
Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: &, 15th, art, arts, asia, black, block, bw, central, century, china, christian, christianity, death, disease, europe, european, historical, history, illness, illustration, images, memento, mongolia, monk, monks, mori, pandemic, pest, pestits, pictures, plague, pray, prayer, praying, priest, priests, religion, road, sickness, silk, skeleton, symbol, symbolic, symbolism, white, wood, woodblock, woodcut, woodcuts, yersinia