The Black Death: Dancing with Death in the Medieval World

Death Series. Episode #2 of 4. The Black Death raged across Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia in the mid 14th century. Families were thrown into chaos, the Catholic church faced dissension in its ranks, and townships struggled to provide services and control infection. The sheer ubiquity of death even fostered an artistic genre: the danse macabre, which reminded young and old, rich and poor, healthy and sick alike that all would be made equal in death. For this episode in our Death series, what better topic than the Black Death itself?

Coming up in our Death series:

The Death of Amy Robsart, Lady Dudley

"La Petite Mort"

Select Bibliography:

Ole Benedictow, The Black Death, 1346-1353: The Complete History (Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2004)

Joseph P. Byrne, The Black Death (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004)

For the complete Bibliography and a transcript, visit digpodcast.org

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