Template:1348-03-12-Avignon

1348, March 12 VN: 200.000

The Black Death arrives in Europe, with a detailed description of symptoms and precise numbers for Avignon, but also Venice, Marseille, Italy, Provence, Hungary, France, Germany and Scotland are mentioned

Anno Domini MCCCXLVII. pestilencia et mors universalis humani generis tanta invaluit, qualis umquam audita vel scripta reperitur. Nam primo in partibus ultramarinis inter paganos incepit, et tam gravis, ut dicebatur, quod ad ducenta milia ville, civitates absque hominibus remanerent; demum serpentino modo gradiebatur ex ista parte maris. Nam Veneciis, in tota Ytalia et Provincia, (p. 76), maxime in civitatibus iuxta mare sitis homines sine numero moriebantur; et Avinione, ubi tunc erat curia Romana, primis diebus proximis tribus post dominicam medie quadragesime mille et quadringenti computati homines sepulti fuerunt. Imo dicebatur, quod in civitate Marsyliensi ex hac pestilencia tot homines moriebantur, quod locus quasi inhabitabilis remansit. Postea transivit ad Alpes, ad Ungariam, per totam Alamaniam, per Franciam, in qua vix tercia pars hominum viva remansit, item per Scociam. Et semper in una provincia per unum annum vel circa duravit, transiens ultra; et sic paucis regnis exceptis quasi omnia mundi regna quassavit. Et ceciderunt homines ex ulceribus seu glandinibus exortis sub assellis vel iuxta genitalia - et pro maiori parte iuvenes moriebantur - vel per excrecionem materie sanguinee, et hic dolor in sex vel octo diebus homines suffocavit. Hec loca apud medicos emunctoria nuncupantur, quia superfluitas vel sudor subtilis hiis locis faciliter emittitur per naturam. Duravit autem hec pestilencia per quinque vel sex annos vel circa.

In the year of our Lord 1347, a universal pestilence and mortality of mankind surged with such intensity as has ever been heard or recorded. For it first began in distant lands among the pagans, and was so severe, it was said, that up to two hundred thousand villages and cities were left without inhabitants. Eventually, it advanced in a serpentine manner from that side of the sea. Indeed, in Venice, throughout Italy and Provence, especially in cities near the sea, people were dying in countless numbers; and in Avignon, where the Roman court was then located, within the first three days after mid-Lent Sunday, fourteen hundred people were buried. Moreover, it was said that in the city of Marseilles, so many people died from this pestilence that the place remained almost uninhabitable. Afterwards, it crossed the Alps, reached Hungary, passed through all of Germany, through France, where scarcely a third of the people remained alive, as well as through Scotland. And it always lasted in one province for about a year or so, before moving on; and thus, except for a few kingdoms, it shook almost all the kingdoms of the world. And people fell victim to ulcers or swellings that appeared under their armpits or near their genitals - and mostly young people were dying - or through the excretion of bloody matter, and this pain suffocated people within six or eight days. These areas are called snuffers or scissors (?) by physicians because excess or subtle sweat is easily emitted from these places by nature. However, this pestilence lasted for about five or six years. (Translation: Martin Bauch)

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