Italy: The Black Death. Illustration from a version of the Decameron, a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales. 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.

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Size: 3650px × 4773px
Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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