The Black Death
Part II Special Subject Option E, 2014-15
Dr Chris Briggs
COURSE HANDBOOK
The dead of Tournai (n. France) are buried. From a 14th century Flemish manuscript.
The epidemic that spread across Western Europe between 1347 and 1351 continues to command
the attention of historians and the wider public. This is unsurprising, given the scale of the
catastrophe: one recent estimate suggests that 50 million out of Europe’s 80 million people died
in the epidemic. Debate about the Black Death remains intense. Not only have historians and
scientists disagreed about the nature of the disease itself, they have also differed regarding its
impact on society, economy, and politics. After a long period in which the Black Death was seen
as contributing little more than an acceleration of pre-existing trends, those working on England
at least now see it as an environmental ‘shock’ which profoundly changed society.
This course is taught through 20 two-hour classes (see below). The first three classes
(Part I of the course) comprise an introduction to the issues, and a discussion of salient features
of English society and economy of the decades before the Black Death. The rest of the course is
divided into two parts, ‘Part II: the epidemic’ (Michaelmas, classes 4-7), and ‘Part III: impact’
(last week in Michaelmas, and Lent, classes 8-16). The main focus will be on England, but
comparisons with other European and wider contexts are essential. Part II explores the disease
itself, taking account of the latest scientific and archaeological research, as well as the major
historical sources. We investigate the origins, spread and nature of the disease, and the measures
by which people and governments dealt with the dead and dying in the short term. It will look at
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how medical experts of the time reacted, and ask how far populations were able to take measures
to deal with this biological threat.
Part III of the course considers some of the most important ways in which society was
affected over the longer term by the 1347-51 epidemic (1348-9 in England) and subsequent
outbreaks of disease. One challenge of studying the Black Death’s impact is that it is potentially
all-embracing. There is a danger of trying to study everything that happened between c. 1347 and
1500 under the heading ‘The Black Death’.
This course seeks to avoid this through a more focused and selective approach. First, the
paper has quite tight chronological boundaries, restricting itself largely to the decades c.1330c.1410. Second, Part III of the course concentrates on six key, interconnected areas where there
were distinctive developments in this period. In all cases, the developments clearly owed a good
deal to the Black Death and subsequent fourteenth-century plague outbreaks. The areas in
question are:
1. the wage and price movements of 1348-c.1400;
2. the decline of serfdom;
3. the emergence of new legal structures;
4. the heightened incidence of popular revolt;
5. religious belief and attitudes towards the institutional church;
6. art and architecture: style and patterns of output.
As change in each of these areas is examined, the focus is on causation. Can the Black Death can
be seen as a straightforward cause of change in each case? Was the first or subsequent outbreaks
of plague most important? Alternatively, did the changes observed predate the Black Death? Or
did the change have its origins in an independent development? Throughout, we also consider
the contrasting experiences of town and countryside, and of different regions.
Teaching and learning activities. The classes are curently scheduled for Tuesdays, 10-12.
Usually we’ll have a break halfway through. The main mode of study is seminar-style
discussion. There will be a lecture in the first introductory session, and shorter lectures in
sessions 2-3. But thereafter there will be no lectures as such. In most sessions, the primary
sources we work on are the set texts (see CamTools site) from which the ‘gobbets’ (source
extracts) in Tripos examination paper 2ii will be drawn. The exceptions to this are sessions 2-3,
where all the primary sources we look at are ‘non-set’, the aim being to provide some initial
source practice.
A number of set texts, plus relevant secondary reading, are assigned for each session. To
prepare, please read as many of the set texts and related secondary material as you can. It is
unlikely that you will get through everything every time, but aim to read at least 100 pages of
primary and secondary material in preparation each week. Each session has an overall aim which
feeds into the larger intended learning outcomes (see below) of the course. At the end of each
session, we will ask ourselves how far we have achieved its aim and, if not identify any further
work required to do so. Questions to consider when reading the material source are given below.
The discussion will revolve around each of these questions in turn. For the set texts, secondary
reading, aims and questions for each session, see below.
Gobbets training will be provided in Easter Term, sessions 18-19.
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Field Trips: we will visit either the Centre for Human Bioarchaeology (Museum of
London), where the skeletons from the East Smithfield Black Death cemetery, excavated in the
1980s, are curated, OR Ashwell church (Herts) to look at 14th century grafitti, plus sites relevant
to the 1381 peasants’ revolt in cambridgeshire. Details to follow.
Assessment
There are two examination papers, the ‘Long Essay’ paper (2i) and the gobbets paper (2ii).
Generic details are available on the faculty website. The ‘Long essay’ paper will have 10
questions, which correspond to topics you will study in Parts II and III of the course (sessions 416).
On the gobbets paper there will be a mix of textual, visual and statistical extracts. As one
option for the ‘third question’ on the gobbets paper, it is customary to have a question which asks
about the general character of the sources (see past papers of other Special Subjects for
examples). You can expect something along these lines for the Black Death, and we will have a
session in Easter Term on this specific issue.
This assessment is designed to ensure that you have achieved the broad learning
outcomes of the course, given below.
Intended learning outcomes.
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
•
•
•
•
Critically evaluate a range of primary sources, especially chronicles, medical treatises,
government statutes and ordinances, court records, financial accounts, literary texts, and
buildings;
Evaluate basic quantitative historical and scientific data, especially on demographic,
medical and economic topics;
Demonstrate a deeper engagement with the issue of causation in history as a result of
exploration of the short, medium and longer-term effects of the Black Death;
Debate the broader role of disease in historical change.
Sessions: structure and content
Michaelmas Term
Part I: Introductory
1
The Black Death in European History: general questions and
verdicts
2
England on the eve of the Black Death (i): rural society
3
England on the eve of the Black Death (ii): urban society
Part II: The Epidemic
4
Origins and spread of the epidemic
3
5
6
7
The character of the disease: the debate
Medical explanations and responses
Short-term responses: government and society
8
Part III: Impact
Impact: mortality (i): English case studies, rural and urban
Lent Term
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Impact: mortality (ii): second and later outbreaks
Impact: prices, wages, and money
Impact: serfdom and the problem of labour
Impact: government, legislation, and law
Impact: European social revolt
Impact: the church and religion
Impact: art and architecture
Literary sources and the Black Death
Easter Term
Black Death primary sources: general characteristics
Gobbets training session 1 [Long essay deadline probably this
week]
Gobbets training session 2
Consolidation/revision
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BLACK DEATH SPECIAL SUBJECT: SET TEXTS 2014-15
[NB there will be some slight changes to this list before October.]
Source collections
1. Aberth, J. (ed.), The Black Death: the Great Mortality of 1348-1350. A Brief History with
Documents (2005), nos. 1-3, 8, 10-14, 17, 19-21, 26, 29-30, 44-6.
2. Amt, E. (ed.), Medieval England, 1000-1500: A Reader (2001), pp. 344-8 (‘London wage and
price regulations, 1350’).
3. Bland, A.E., Brown, P.A., and Tawney, R.H. (eds.), English Economic History: Select
Documents (London, 1914), pp. 65-75 (no. 2), 84 (no 8), 97-98 (nos. 23-4), 102-3 (27),
170-1 (nos. 16-17), 220-3 (no. 9).
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43211/43211-h/43211-h.htm
4. Clapp, B.W., Fisher, H.E.S., and Jurica, A.R.J. (eds.), Documents in English Economic
History. England from 1000 to 1760 (London: G. Bell and Sons Ltd, 1977), pp. 111-14
(nos. 21-2), 181-2 (no. 12), 415-16 (no. 14), 474-6 (no. 8).
5. Cohn, S.K., ed., Popular protest in late medieval Europe (Manchester Medieval
Sources, 2004), nos. 91-8, 124-5, 129, 132-6, 144, 146.
6. Dobson, R.B. (ed.), The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 (2nd ed., 1983) nos. 2, 3, 6A-B, 7-9, 15-21,
25-7, 35-7, 60, 63, 69-70, 71A-B.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb01538
7. Heale, M., (ed.), Monasticism in late medieval England, c.1300-1535 (Manchester
Medieval Sources, 2009), nos. 39, 49-50.
8. Horrox, R. (ed.), The Black Death (Manchester Medieval Sources, 1994) ALL ITEMS
EXCEPT nos. 2, 47, 54-5, 81, 93-4, 101-3, 110, 114, 122-125.
9. Myers, A.R. (ed.), English Historical Documents Volume 4: 1327-1485 (1996 ed.), nos. 324,
336, 338, 342, 344, 345, 346-7, 434, 436, 465, 499-501, 503-4, 570, 622, 624, 695.
Royal records of government and taxation
10. Calendar of Patent Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office. Item nos. as follows: 134850: pp. 441 (1st item, Nov. 1349), 459 (3rd item, Dec 1349), 563 (4th item, Aug. 1350); 1350-54:
pp. 15 (3rd item from bottom, Nov. 1350), 56 (3rd item, Mar. 6 1351), 323 (4th item, Sept. 6
1352), 353 (4th item, Nov. 12 1352), 417 (2nd item, Mar. 10 1353); 1354-58 pp. 16-17 (bottom
item, Jan. 1354), 282 (3rd item, Oct 5 1355), 445-6 (bottom item, June 6 1356),; 1358-61: pp.
538-9 (bottom item, Feb. 8 1361); 1361-4: pp. 63-7 (‘Commission of the peace…now
deceased’), 68 (2nd item, Apr.), 93 (3rd item, Nov. 4), 108 (4th item, Nov. 15), 150, 205, 207-10,
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213, 284 (all items beginning ‘Association…’), 291-3 (‘Commission to Robert Tiliol…county of
Somerset’); 1364-7: pp. 67-8 (large item, Sept. 4).
For volumes to 1364:
Online resource : in UL catalogue under ‘Keyword’, search on ‘Calendar patent rolls’, then
follow the link to the electronic resource
for 1364-7:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/patentrolls/
11. Calendar of the Close Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office. 1346-9: pp. 613-14, item
dated 1 January 1349 (‘To W. bishop of Winchester…sheriffs of England’). 1349-54: p. 66, last
item (10 March 1349).
12. Fenwick, C. (ed.), The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381 Parts 1-3 (1998-2005) Part
1, pp. 173-84, 206-222 (‘Essex 1381: Hinckford Hundred’), 290-4 (‘Gloucestershire
1381: Brightwells Barrow Hundred’), 311-12 (‘Gloucestershire 1381 Reassessment: Brightwells
Barrow Hundred’). Translations of all Latin terms to be provided.
13. Given-Wilson, C. (ed.), The parliament rolls of medieval England, 1275-1504 (16 vols.,
2005) vols. 4-7. Item nos. as follows: 1348 (Mar): 4; 1351: 4, 12, 17-18; 1352: 13, 32, 38, 48;
1353: 36; 1354: 17-18, 26, 44; 1362: 23, 27, 28, 29, 38-9; 1363: 12-16, 19, 21, 23-5, 38; 1365:
11, 15; 1372: 29-30; 1373: 26-7; 1376: 61, 67, 83, 156; 1377 (Jan): 29; 1377 (Oct): 54-5; 1378:
50, 60, 62, 69; 1379: 39, 41, 44, 48; 1380 (Jan): 10-17, 27-8, 30, 38-41, 49; 1380 (Nov): 29-30,
32; 1382 (May): 17; 1382 (Oct): 53; 1383 (Oct): 28; 1385: 27; 1390 (Jan): 38, 40, 58; 1390
(Nov): 19.
In the online edition, click on relevant parliament, then ‘Text/translation’, then ‘Show all’
in R-hand pane):
http://www.sd-editions.com/PROME/home.html
14. Glasscock, R.E. (ed.), The Lay subsidy of 1334 (1975), pp. 78-89.
15. Statutes of the Realm, I, pp. 323 (no. XVIII); 364-7 (nos. I-X).
Online resource : in UL catalogue under ‘Title’, search on ‘Statutes of the Realm’, then follow
the link to the electronic resource
Bishops’ registers
16. Deedes, C., ed., The episcopal register of Robert Rede, ordinis predicatorum, Lord Bishop of
Chichester,1397-1415 (Sussex Record Society 8, 1908), pp. 53-4 (no. 39).
17. Hingeston-Randolph, F.C., ed., The register of John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter (A.D.
1327-1369) (3 vols., London, 1894-7), ii, pp. 617, 1159, 1166 [translation to be provided]
http://archive.org/details/05089497.1331.emory.edu
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18. Pobst, P. (ed.), The Register of William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, 1344-1355, 2 parts,
Canterbury and York Society 84, 90 (Woodbridge, 1996, 2000), Part 1, pp. 79-135;
Part 2, pp. 3-31 (nos. 445-1290, 1296).
Literary sources, letters etc.
19. Ginsberg, W. (ed.), Wynnere and Wastoure and The Parlement of the Tbre Ages
(Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992), pp. 13-29 [Wynnere and
Wastoure]
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/ginsberg-wynnere-and-wastoure-and-the-parlementof-the-thre-ages
20. Langland, W. Piers Plowman. A New Translation of the B-Text, ed. A.V.C. Schmidt (1992),
pp. 1-7, 42-74 [Prologue and Passus V-VI].
21. Martin, G.H. (ed.), Knighton’s Chronicle 1337-1396 (1995), pp. 507-9 (‘The king held
another parliament…form which follows’), 537-8 (‘A remarkable dearth…perished of
hunger’.)
22. Mirour de l'Omme : (the Mirror of Mankind), by John Gower; trans. William Burton Wilson
; revised by Nancy Wilson Van Baak (1992), pp. 375-49 (lines 25501-26604).
23. Hudson, A. (ed.), Selections from English Wycliffite Writings (1978) pp. 18-29 (nos. 1-3);
translations of 2 and 3 below; translation of 1 to follow:
http://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/medieval/sixteenpoints.htm
http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/varia/lollards/lollconc.htm
24. Literae Cantuarienses: the letter books of the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, ed. J.
Brigstocke Sheppard (3 vols., London, 1887-9), ii, nos. 831, 836, 841, 853
[translation to follow], 880 [translation to follow], 888, 916-18.
http://archive.org/details/litercantuarie02chri
25. Rigg, J.M. (ed.), Boccaccio, The Decameron (2 vols., London, 1930), I, pp. 4-11 (The
onset of the Black Death, as described by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) )
26. Stockton, E.W. (ed.) The Major Latin Works of John Gower (1962), pp. 208-10 [Vox
Clamantis, Book 5 Chapters 9-10].
Legal records
27. Arnold, M. (ed.), Select Cases of Trespass from the King’s Courts 1307-1399 (Selden
Soc. 2 vols, 1984-7), I, pp. 99-106 (nos. 10.1-10.10); ii, pp. 422-36 (nos. 40.1-40.15).
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28. Thompson, E.M., ‘Offenders against the statute of labourers in Wiltshire, A.D. 1349’,
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, XXXIII (1904), pp. 386-409
(‘Assize Roll No. 1018…’-end).
http://archive.org/details/wiltshirearchaeo33arch
Manorial records
29. Lock, R. (ed.), The court rolls of Walsham le Willows 1303-50 (Suffolk Record Soc., vol. 41,
1998), pp. 289-336.
30. Lock, R. (ed.), The Court Rolls of Walsham le Willows 1351-99 (Suffolk Record Soc.,
vol. 45, 2002). pp. 26-81.
31. Salzman, L.F. (ed.), Ministers’ accounts of the manor of Petworth, 1347-53 (Sussex Record
Soc., 1955), pp. 1-72.
32. NOT USED
33. Cambridge University Library, MSS dept. Extracts from the court rolls of the manor of
Tibenham, Norfolk 1354 and 1377 [4 A4 pages]
Wills
34. Sharpe, R.R. (ed.) Calendar of wills proved and enrolled in the court of Husting 1258-1688
(2 parts., 1889-90); part 1, pp. 512-675 (i.e. from ‘Anno 23 Edward III’, to end of 13523); part 2, pp. 13-75 (i.e. from ‘Anno 35 Edward III’ to end of 1361-2).
http://archive.org/details/calendarofwillsp01lond
http://archive.org/details/calendarofwillsp02lond
35. Wadley, T.P. (ed.), Notes or abstracts of the wills contained in the volume entitled the
Great orphan book and Book of wills : in the council house at Bristol (Bristol, 1886), pp.
7-14 (nos. 4-20).
http://archive.org/details/notesorabstract00wadl
36. Weaver, F.W. (ed.), Somerset Medieval Wills (Somerset Rec. Soc. 16, 1901), pp. 1-3
(Aliston), 6-9 (Tanner), 11-14 (Damesele, Bount), 15-17 (Ken, Torny, Walssche),
18-19 (Wattes)
http://archive.org/details/somersetpub16someuoft
37. Weaver, F.W. (ed.), Somerset Medieval Wills (second Series) 1501-1530. With Some
Somerset Wills Preserved at Lambeth (Somerset Rec. Soc., 19, 1903), pp. 286-9
(Salopia, Samborne, Wyth), 290-4 (Acton, Upton), 299-302 (Audeley, Lyonns).
http://archive.org/details/somersetpub19someuoft
Statistical material
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38. Aberth, J., From the brink of the apocalypse: confronting famine, war, plague and death in
the later middle ages (2nd ed., 2010), pp. 280-6, Tables 3, 8 and 9 [clerical mortality]
39. Campbell, B., ‘Grain yields on English demesnes after the Black Death’, in M. Bailey
and S. Rigby, eds., Town and Countryside in the Age of the Black Death: Essays in
Honour of John Hatcher (2012) Appendix 1, pp. 163-8.
40. Challis, C.E. (ed.), A new history of the Royal Mint (1992), pp. 678-82.
41. East Smithfield Black Death cemetery data, Tables 1-4 at:
http://archive.museumoflondon.org.uk/Centre-for-HumanBioarchaeology/Database/Medieval+cemeteries/ESmithfieldBlackDeath.htm
42. Farmer, D.L., ‘Prices and wages’, in H.E. Hallam (ed.), The agrarian history of
England and Wales, I: 1052-1350 (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 787-95, 799-817.
43. Farmer, D.L., ‘Prices and wages, 1350-1500’, in E. Miller (ed.), The agrarian history of
England and Wales, II: 1348-1500 (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 502-5, 509-25.
44. Horrox, R., and Ormrod, W.M. (eds.), A Social History of England 1200-1500 (2006), p.
216, Figure 7.1 (Agricultural prices, agricultural wages and real wages in England,
1208-1466)
45. Lloyd, T.H. The Movement of Wool prices in Medieval England, Economic History review
Supplement no. 6 (London, 1973), pp. 40-3, 48-9, 63-4, 66-7.
46. Poos, L.R., ‘The rural population of Essex in the later middle ages’, Economic History
Review, 38 (1985), p. 522 (Figure 2a):
http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2597186?&Search=yes&searchText=turnover&searchText=poo
s&searchText=population&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3D
poos%2Bpopulation%2Bturnover%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearch=&it
em=1&ttl=50&returnArticleService=showArticleInfo
47. Postles, D., ‘Demographic change in Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, in the later middle
ages’, Local Population Studies, 48 (1992), p. 45 (Figure 1):
http://www.localpopulationstudies.org.uk/backissues41-50.html
Visual material (here it is mainly the various photographs that are ‘set’):
(i)
archaeological excavations
48. TWO photographs of excavations in the 1980s at the East Smithfield Black Death
Cemetery, London (Both images on this page):
9
http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/NewsProjects/Archive/News08/blackdeathcem
etery.htm
(ii) Paintings etc.
49. V. Pritchard (ed.), English Medieval Graffiti (1967), pp. 181-3 in its entirety. [Drawings and
Writings in Ashwell church, Hertfordshire ]
50. The Corporal Acts of Mercy Window window, All Saints, North Street, York, c. 1410.
(a) whole window (here:)
http://allsaints-northstreet.org.uk/stainedglass.html#7
(click on the link for a view of all windows, including this one)
Or here
http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/yorkscenes/yspage03b.htm
(b) detail: visiting the sick
http://allsaints-northstreet.org.uk/stainedglass.html#7
follow the link at the above site and scroll to correct place on the pdf.
More high resolution images of the window at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/sets/72157603886650273/
51. Survivors burying the dead during the Black Death at Tournai in Flanders in 1349. From a
late medieval manuscript of the Chronicle of Gilles li Muisis. Reproduced in Platt, King
Death, p.4.
52. Drawing from the register of William Courtenay, archbishop of Canterbury, showing a
villein tenant of Wingham, Kent, doing penance for refusing carrying service, 1390.
Reproduced in E.B. Fryde, Peasants and Landlords in later medieval England (1996), p.
244.
(iii) Cathedrals and parish churches:
53. Gloucester cathedral:
(a) south transept and south window;
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Plate XXVb in J. Ashwell, ‘Gloucester cathedral – the south transept: a fourteenth-century
conservation project’, Antiquaries Journ., 65 (1985).
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7836192
(b) great east window
4th image from L here:
http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=the-great-east-window
54. Tewkesbury Abbey, north quire window:
Image at Figure 2, here:
http://vidimus.org/issues/issue-11/feature/
55. Little St Mary’s church, Cambridge:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Church_of_St_Mary_The_Less,_Cambrid
ge.jpg
56. Etchingham (Sussex) parish church:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttelyob/8633429973/
57. Patrington (E Yorks) parish church:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queen_of_Holderness_-_geograph.org.uk__617179.jpg
(iv) manuscript illuminations:
58. Fitzwilliam Museum, MS1-2005, (the Macclesfield Psalter), folio 39 recto, image ‘the
Annointing of David’:
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/macclesfield/gallery/
59. Bodleian Library, MS Liturg. 198, folio 46 recto, image, ‘David and Goliath’:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/medieval/liturg/images/01983489.jpg
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Secondary reading list by topic
NB *=priority item
1. The Black Death in European History: general verdicts
(a) Black Death & its consequences
Aberth, J., From the brink of the apocalypse: confronting famine, war, plague and death in the
later middle ages (2nd revised ed., 2010) [try first edition (2001) if you cannot get hold of
this edition)]
Benedictow, O., The Black Death 1346-1353. The Complete History (2004).
Bowsky, W.M., ed., The Black Death: A turning point in history? (1971).
Campbell, B.M.S., Ellen McArthur Lectures, University of Cambridge, February 2013, esp.
no. 4. Podcasts at
http://www.econsoc.hist.cam.ac.uk/podcast-campbell.html
Cantor, N.F., In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made (2002).
Epstein, S., An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe (2009).
Hatcher, J., The Black Death: An Intimate History (2008).
Herlihy, D., The Black Death and the Transformation of the West (1997).
*Ormrod, M. & Lindley, P., eds., The Black Death in England (1996), Intro., and Bolton chapter
Platt, C., King Death. The Black Death and its Aftermath in late-medieval England
(1996),
esp. chap. 10
Rigby, S., ‘Historical causation: is one thing more important than another?’, History 80 (1995)
[electronic].
*Williman, D. (ed.), The Black Death: the impact of the fourteenth-century plague (1982)
(articles), esp. Bean, J.M.W., ‘The Black Death: the crisis and its social and
economic consequences’
Ziegler, P., The Black Death (1970).
(b) classic works on the general character of the later medieval period
Du Boulay, F.R.H., An Age of Ambition. English Society in the Late Middle Ages (1970)
Huizinga, J., The waning of the Middle Ages : a study of the forms of life, thought, and art in
France and the Netherlands in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (first pub. 1919,
widely reprinted)
(c) Medieval and modern plagues: comparisons
Aberth, J., Plagues in world history (2011).
Aberth, J., The first horseman: disease in human history (2007).
Little, L.K. (ed.), Plague and the End of Antiquity: the pandemic of 541-750 (2008).
McNeill, W., Plagues and peoples (1976).
Shrewsbury, J.F.D., A History of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles (1971).
Slack, P., The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (1985).
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2. England on the eve of the Black Death (i): rural society
Bailey, M., ‘Peasant welfare in England, 1290-1348’, Economic History Review, 51 (1998), 22351.
Bridbury, A., ‘Before the Black Death’, Econ. Hist. Rev. 30 (1977).
*Campbell, B.M.S. (ed.), Before the Black Death. Studies in the ‘crisis’ of the early
fourteenth century (Manchester, 1991), e.g. Introduction, by Harvey
Campbell, B.M.S., ‘The agrarian problem in the early fourteenth century’, Past & Present, 188
(2005), 3-70.
Campbell, B.M.S., and Bartley, K., England on the eve of the Black Death. An atlas of lay
lordship, land and wealth, 1300-49 (Manchester, 2006).
Dyer, C., Standards of living in the later middle ages: social change in England c.1200-1520
(revised edn.; Cambridge, 1998).
Ecclestone, M., ‘Mortality of rural landless men before the Black Death: the Glastonbury headtax lists’, Local Population Studs., 63 (Autumn 1999), 6-29
Glasscock, R.E., ‘England c.1334’, in H.C. Darby (ed.), A New Historical Geography of
England Before 1600 (Cambridge, 1976), 136-185
Kershaw, I., ‘The Great Famine and agrarian crisis in England 1315-1322’, in R.H.Hilton (ed.),
Peasants, Knights and Heretics (Cambridge, 1976), 85-132.
Kitsikopoulos, H., ‘Standards of living and capital formation in pre-plague England: a peasant
budget model’, Economic History Review, 53 (2000), 237-61.
Smith, R.M., ‘The English peasantry, 1250-1650’, in T. Scott (ed.), The peasantries of Europe
from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries (London and New York, 1998), 339-71.
3. England on the eve of the Black Death (ii): urban society
Amor, N., Late medieval Ipswich: trade and industry (2011).
Barron, C. London in the Later Middle Ages. Government and People 1200-1500 (2004).
Britnell, R.H., Growth and Decline in Colchester 1300-1525 (1986).
*Britnell, R., ‘Town life’, in R. Horrox and W.M. Ormrod, eds., A Social History of
England 1200-1500 (2006).
Britnell, R., ‘England: Towns, Trade and Industry’, in S. Rigby, ed., A companion to Britain in
the late middle ages (2003).
Goddard, R., Lordship and medieval urbanization: Coventry 1043-1355 (2004).
Miller, E., and Hatcher, J., Medieval England: Towns, Commerce and Crafts 1086-1348 (1995).
Palliser, D.M. (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain Volume I 600-1540 (2000).
Rawcliffe, C., and Wilson, R., eds., Medieval Norwich (2004).
Rigby, S.H., Medieval Grimsby, Growth and Decline (1993).
Rosser, G., Medieval Westminster, 1200-1540 (1989).
4. Origins and spread of the epidemic
13
Benedictow, O., The Black Death 1346-1353. The Complete History (2004), Parts 2-3
Dols, M.W., ‘Geographical origin of the Black Death’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 52
(1978) [online]
Norris, J., ‘East or west? The geographic origin of the Black Death’, Bulletin of the History of
Medicine 51 (1977) [online]
5. The character of the disease: the debate
*Bolton, J.L., ‘Looking for Yersinia Pestis: scientists, historians, and the Black Death’ in Linda
Clark and Carole Rawcliffe eds., The Fifteenth Century XIII: Society in an Age of Plague
(Woodbridge, 2013) [CamTools]
Carmichael, A.G., ‘Bubonic plague: the Black Death’, in Kiple, K.F., ed., Plague, pox
and
pestilence (1997)
*Cohn, S.K., ‘The Black Death: the end of a paradigm’, American History Review, 107 (2002),
703-38. [online]
Cohn, S.K., The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Medieval Europe
(2002).
*Little, L.K., ‘Plague historians in lab coats’, Past & Present, 213 (2011), 267-90. [online]
McCormick, M., ‘Rats, communications, and plague’, Journal of Interdisciplinary Hist.,
34 (2003) [online]
*Nutton, V., ed., Pestilential complexities: understanding medieval plague (Medical History,
supplement no., 27, 2008) [online]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/issues/176582/
Scott, S., and Duncan, C.J., Biology of Plagues: evidence from historical populations
(2001).
Theilmann, J., and Cate, F., ‘A plague of plagues: the problem of plague diagnosis in
medieval England’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 32 (2007) [online].
Twigg, G., The Black Death: a biological reappraisal (1984).
6. Scientific studies
[all the articles in section (a) are available online. Search on Google. I have noted where the
study uses East Smithfield Black Death cemetery data]
(a.) key scientific & archaeological studies
Bos, K., et al., ‘A draft genome of Yersinia Pestis from victims of the Black Death’, Nature, 478
(2011), 506-510 [analysis of E. Smithfield victims, shows DNA of the pathogen]
Christakos, G., et al., ‘Recent results on the spatiotemporal modeling and comparative
analysis of Black Death and bubonic plague epidemics’, Public Health 121 (2007)
[speed of spread]
Connell, B. et al, A bioarchaeological study of medieval burials on the site of St Mary Spital:
excavations at Spitalfields Market, London E1, 1991-2007 (MOLAS monograph 60:
2012).
14
Dewitte, S., and Wood, J., ‘Selectivity of Black Death mortality with respect to preexisting
health’, Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Science of the United States, 105 (2008),
1436-41 [uses East Smithfield cemetery data]
Dewitte, S., ‘The Effect of Sex on Risk of Mortality during the Black Death in London, A.D.
1349-1350’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139 (2009), 222- 34 [uses East
Smithfield cemetery data]
Haensch et al., ‘Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death’, PloS Pathogens, 6
(2010), 1–8 [gives context, and is key study for showing YP was
the culprit]
Hufthammer, A.K., and Walloe, L., ‘Rats cannot have been intermediate hosts for
yersinia
pestis during medieval plague epidemics in Northern Europe’, Journal
of Archaeological Science 40 (2013).
Morelli et al., ‘Yersinia pestis genome sequencing identifies patterns of global
phylogenetic
diversity’, Nature Genetics, xlii (2010) Nature Genetics (2010) [YP
genome
sequenced; comes from China]
Welford, M., and Bossak, B.H., ‘Validation of inverse seasonal peak mortality in medieval
plagues, including the Black Death, in comparison to modern Yersinia
Pestis’, PloS
ONE, 4 (2009) [seasonal mortality]
Wood et al., ‘The temporal dynamics of the fourteenth-century Black Death: new evidence from
English ecclesiastical records’, Human Biology 75.4 (2003) [speed of spread, using
bishops’ registers]
(b.) The Black Death cemetery, East Smithfield
Grainger, I. et al., The Black Death Cemetery, East Smithfield, London (MOMAS monograph 43:
2008) [important but hard-to-get volume; only one copy in Cambridge]
*Hawkins, D., ‘The Black Death and the new London cemeteries of 1348’, Antiquity, 64 (1990).
[online]
7. Medical explanations and responses
Aberth, J., From the brink of the apocalypse: confronting famine, war, plague and death in the
later middle ages (2nd ed., 2010), pp. 94-119
*Arrizabalaga, J., ‘Facing the Black Death: perceptions and reactions of university
medical practitioners’, in L. Garcia-Ballester et al., eds., Practical Medicine from Salerno
to the Black Death (1994)
Campbell, A.M., The Black Death and men of learning (1931)
Carmichael, A.G., Plague and the poor in Renaissance Florence (1986)
*Henderson, J., ‘The Black Death in Florence: medical and communal responses’, in S.
Bassett, ed., Death in Towns (1992).
Macdougall, S., ‘Health, diet, medicine and the plague’, in C. Given-Wilson, ed., An
Illustrated History of late medieval England (1996).
Rawcliffe, C., Medicine and Society in Later Medieval England (1995)
15
8. Impact: mortality: English case studies, rural and urban (1348-9 & later outbreaks)
Rural
*Aberth, J., ‘The Black Death in the diocese of Ely: the evidence of the bishop’s register’,
Journal of Medieval History, 21 (1995), 275-87 [online; Google search]
Campbell, B.M.S., ‘Population pressure, inheritance and the land market in a fourteenth- century
peasant community’, in Smith (ed.), Land, kinship and life-cycle, 87-134.
*Davies, R.A., ‘The effect of the Black Death on the parish priests of the medieval
diocese
of Coventry and Lichfield’, Historical Research, LXII (1989)
Forrest, M., ‘The Black Death in Dorset: the crisis of 1348-1349’, Proceedings of the
Dorset
Natural History and Archaeological Society, 131 (2010)
Hamilton Thompson, A. ‘Registers of John Gynewell, Bishop of Lincoln, for the years 134750’, Archaeological Journal, LXVIII (1911)
Hamilton Thompson, A., ‘The pestilences of the 14th century in the diocese of York’,
Archaeological Journal., LXXXI, 1914
James, T.B., ‘The Black Death in Hampshire’ (Hampshire Papers, 18 (1999) [order West
Room, L479.b.270]
Levett, A.E., The Black Death on the estates of the See of Winchester (Oxford Studies in Social
and Legal History, 1916).
Lomas, R., ‘The Black Death in County Durham’, Journal of Medieval History, 15
(1989)
*Lock, R., ‘The Black Death in Walsham le Willows’, Proc. Suff. Inst. Archaeol., 37
(1992),
316-36.
Mullan, J., ‘Mortality, gender and the plague of 1361-2 on the estate of the bishop of
Winchester’, (Cardiff Historical Papers, 2007/8) [online; do Google search]
*Page, F.M., The estates of Crowland Abbey. A study in manorial organisation (Cambridge,
1934), chap. X
Poos, L.R., ‘The rural population of Essex in the later middle ages’, Economic History
Review, 38 (1985), 515-30. [online]
Poos, L.R., Razi, Z., and Smith, R.M., ‘The population history of medieval English
villages: a debate on the use of manor court records’, in Razi and Smith (eds.),
Medieval society and the manor court, 298-367.
Poos, L.R., A Rural Society after the Black Death. Essex 1350-1525 (1991).
Ravensdale, J., ‘Population changes and the transfer of customary land on a
Cambridgeshire manor in the fourteenth century’, in Smith (ed.), Land, kinship and
life-cycle, 197-225.
Razi, Z., Life, marriage and death in a medieval parish: economy, society and
demography
in Halesowen 1270-1400 (Cambridge, 1980).
Rees, W., ‘The Black Death in England and Wales, as exhibited in manorial documents’,
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, XVI, 1923, section of the history of
medicine [online]
Woolgar, C.M., D. Serjeantson, and T. Waldron (eds.), Food in medieval England. Diet and
nutrition (Oxford, 2006).
Urban
16
*Britnell, R.H., ‘The Black Death in English towns’, Urban History, 21 (1994) [online]
*Röhrkasten, J., ‘Trends of mortality in late-medieval London (1348-1400)’, Nottingham
Medieval Studies, xlv (2001)
*Sloane, B., The Black Death in London (2011), chaps 2 and 3.
Mortality: European and wider comparisons
Blockmans, W., ‘The social and economic effects of plague in the Low Countries, 1349- 1500’,
Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, 58 (1980)
*Dols, M., The Black Death in the Middle East (1971)
Emery, R., ‘The Black Death of 1348 in Perpignan’, Speculum 42 (1967) [online]
Gwynn, A., ‘The Black Death in Ireland’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 24 (1935).
Gyug, R., ‘The effects and extent of the Black Death of 1348: new evidence for clerical
mortality in Barcelona’, Mediaeval Studies, 45 (1983).
Rees, W., ‘The Black Death in Wales’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th series,
3 (1920) [online], reprinted in R.W. Southern, ed,. Essays in
Medieval History
(1968).
Shirk, M,V., ‘The Black Death in Aragon, 1348-1351’, Journal of Medieval History, 7
(1981)
9. Impact: prices, wages, and money
(a) prices, wages and money
Campbell, B., ‘Grain yields on English demesnes after the Black Death’, in M. Bailey
and S.
Rigby, eds., Town and Countryside in the Age of the Black Death: Essays in Honour of
John Hatcher (2012)
Farmer, D.L., ‘Prices and wages’, in H.E. Hallam (ed.), The agrarian history of England and
Wales, I: 1052-1350 (Cambridge, 1988)
Farmer, D.L., ‘Prices and wages, 1350-1500’, in E. Miller (ed.), The agrarian history
of
England and Wales, II: 1348-1500 (Cambridge, 1991)
Hatcher, J., Plague, Population and the English Economy (1977).
Mate, M., ‘The role of the gold coinage in the English economy, 1338-1400’, Numismatic
Chronicle, 18 (1978), 126-41.
Munro, J., ‘Before and after the Black Death: money, prices, and wages in fourteenthcentury
England’, in T. Dahlerup and P. Ingesman (eds.), New Approaches to the History of Late
Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2009).
Munro, J.H., ‘Wage-stickiness, monetary changes, and real incomes in late medieval
England and the Low Countries, 1300-1500: did money matter?’, Research in
Economic History, 21 (2003), 185-297.
(b) other studies of the economic and social trends of c.1348-c.1400 in England:
*Bailey, M and S. Rigby, eds., Town and Countryside in the Age of the Black Death:
in Honour of John Hatcher (2012), esp. studies by Stone, Munro.
Essays
17
Bean, J.M.W., ‘Plague, population and economic decline in England in the later middle ages’,
Economic History Review, 15 (1963) [online]
Bridbury, A., ‘The Black Death’, Econ. Hist. Rev. 2nd ser. 26 (1973). [online]
*Fryde, E.B., Peasants and landlords in later medieval England (1996)
Rigby, S., ‘Introduction: Social structure and economic change in late medieval England’, in
R. Horrox and M. Ormrod, eds., A Social History of England, 12001500 (2006),
pp. 1-30
10. Impact: serfdom and the problem of labour
*Bailey, M., The decline of serfdom in late medieval England (2014)
*Bennett, J.M., ‘Compulsory service in late medieval England’, Past & Present, 209
(2010)
[online]
*Britnell, R.H., ‘Feudal reaction after the Black Death in the Palatinate of Durham’, Past &
Present, 128 (1990), 28-47 [online]
Cheyney, E.P., ‘The disappearance of English serfdom’, English Historical Review, 15 (1900)
[online]
Cohn, S.K., ‘After the Black Death: Labour Legislation and Attitudes Towards Labour in
Late-Medieval Western Europe’ Economic History Review, 2007 [online]
Davenport, F., ‘The decay of villeinage in East Anglia’, Transactions of the Royal
Historical Society, 14 (1900) [online]
Dyer, C., ‘Villeins, Bondmen, Neifs, and Serfs: New Serfdom in England, c.1200-1600’, in
Forms of Servitude in Northern and Central Europe: Decline, Resistance, and
Expansion, ed. P. Freedman and M. Bourin (2005)
Faith, R. ‘The “Great rumour” of 1377 and peasant ideology’ in R.H. Hilton and T. Aston,
eds., The English Rising of 1381 (1984)
Fryde, E., ‘The tenants of the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and of Worcester after the
plague of 1348-9’, in R.F. Hunnisett and J.B. Post, eds., Medieval Legal Records
(1978)
Hargreaves, P., ‘Seigneurial reaction and peasant responses: Worcester Priory and its
peasants after the Black Death’, Midland History, XXIV (1999), 53-78
*Hatcher, J., ‘England in the aftermath of the Black Death’, Past & Present (1994)
[online]
Hilton, R.H, The Decline of Serfdom in Medieval England (2nd ed., 1983).
Knoop, D., and Jones, G.P., ‘The impressment of masons in the middle ages’, Economic History
Rev., 8 (1937-8) [online]
Penn, S., and Dyer, C., and ‘Wages and earnings in late medieval England: evidence from
the enforcement of the labour laws’, Economic History Review 43 (1990) [online]
11. Impact: government, legislation, and law
Bowsky, W.M., ‘The impact of the Black Death upon Sienese government and society’,
Speculum 39 (1964) [online]
Clark, E., ‘Medieval labour laws and English local courts’, American Journ of Legal Hist,
27 (1983), 330-39 [online access via HeinOnline]
18
Dols, M.W., ‘The comparative communal responses to the Black Death’, Viator 5 (1974).
*Given-Wilson, C., ‘Service, serfdom and English labour legislation 1350-1500’, in
Concepts and Patterns of Service in the Later Middle Ages, ed. A. Curry and E.
Matthew (Woodbridge, 2000) 21-37
*Given-Wilson, C., ‘The problem of labour in the context of English government’, in J.
Bothwell, P.J.P. Goldberg and W.M. Ormrod, eds., The problem of labour in
fourteenth-century England (2000)
*Musson, A., ‘New labour laws, new remedies? Legal reaction to the Black Death
“crisis”’, in N. Saul, ed., Fourteenth Century England I (2000)
Musson, A., and Ormrod, W.M., The Evolution of English Justice: Law, Politics and Society in
the Fourteenth Century (Macmillan, 1999), esp. chaps 3 and 4
*Ormrod, W.M., ‘The English government and the Black Death of 1348-9’, in Ormrod, ed.,
England in the fourteenth century : proceedings of the 1985 Harlaxton
Symposium
(1986)
*Ormrod, W.M., ‘The politics of pestilence’, in Ormrod, M. & Lindley, P., eds., The
Black
Death in England (1996)
*Ormrod, W.M., review of R.C. Palmer, English law in the age of the Black Death
(1993),
in English Historical Review 109 (1994) [online]
*Palmer, R.C., English law in the age of the Black Death, 1348-1381. A transformation of
governance and law (Chapel Hill, 1993).
*Poos, L.R., ‘The social context of statute of labourers enforcement’, Law and Hist. Rev.,
1 (1983) [online]
Putnam, B.H., ‘Maximum wage-laws for priests after the Black Death, 1348-1381’,
American Historical Review, 21 (1915), 12-32 [online]
Putnam, B., The Enforcement of the statute of labourers during the first decade after the Black
Death 1349-59 (1908)
*Putnam, B.H., ‘The transformation of the keepers of the peace into the justices of the
peace
1327-1380’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 4th ser. (1929) [online]
12. Impact: European social revolt
Cohn, S.K., Lust for Liberty: The Politics of Social revolt in Medieval Europe 1200-1425
(Harvard UP 2006)
*Cohn, S.K., ‘Popular insurrection and the Black Death: a comparative view’, in C. Dyer,
et al., eds. Rodney Hilton’s Middle Ages (Past & Present Supplement, 2007)
[online]
Cohn, S.K., ‘Revolt of the late middle ages and the peculiarities of the English’, in R.
Goddard, J. Langdon, and M. Muller, eds. Survival and Discord in Medieval
Society
(2010)
*Dobson, R.B. (ed.), The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 (2nd ed., 1983), Introduction
Dyer, C., ‘The social and economic background to the rural revolt of 1381’, in Hilton
and
Aston eds., The English Rising of 1381 (1984), pp. 9-24, also reprinted in Dyer,
Everyday Life in Medieval England (1994)
Eiden, H., ‘Joint action against bad lordship: the Peasants’ Revolt in Essex and Norfolk’,
History 83 (1998) [online]
19
Fourquin, G., Anatomy of popular rebellion in the middle ages (1978)
Green, R.F., ‘John Ball’s letters: literary history and historical literature’, in B. Hanawalt,
ed., Chaucer’s England: Literature in Historical Context (1992)
Hilton, R.H., ‘Peasant movements in England before 1381’, Economic History review, 2nd ser
ii (1949) [online: JSTOR; also reprinted in & E. Carus-Wilson, Essays in Economic
History Volume ii (1962), and Hilton, Class Conflict and the Crisis of
feudalism]
Hilton, R.H. ‘Ideology and social order in late medieval England’, in Hilton, Class
Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism (1983)
*Hilton, R.H., Bond Men Made free. Medieval Peasant Movements and the English
Rising
of 1381 (1973, revised edition, 2003
Mollat, M. and Wolff, P., The Popular Revolutions of the Later Middle Ages (1973)
Rigby, S.H., and & Whittle, J., ‘England: popular politics and social conflict’, in S.H.
Rigby,
ed., A companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages (2003), pp. 65-86
13. Impact: the church and religion
General
Bainbridge, V.R., Gilds in the medieval countryside. social and religious change in
Cambridgeshire, c.1350-1558 (Woodbridge, 1996).
Cohn, S.K., ‘The place of the dead in Flanders and Tuscany: towards a comparative
history
of the Black Death’, in B. Gordon and P. Marshall, eds., The place of the dead: death
and remembrance in late medieval and early modern Europe (2000)
Crouch, D.J.F., Piety, Fraternity and Power: Religious Gilds in Late Medieval
Yorkshire,
1389-1547 (Woodbridge, 2000).
Dohar, W.J., Black Death and Pastoral Leadership: the diocese of Hereford in the
fourteenth century (1995).
Hanawalt, B.A., ‘Keepers of the lights: late medieval English parish guilds’, Journal of
Medieval and renaissance Studies, 14 (1984)
*Harper-Bill, C., ‘The English Church and English Religion after the Black Death’, in
Ormrod, M. & Lindley, P., eds., The Black Death in England (1996)
Lerner, R.E., ‘The Black Death and Western European eschatological mentalities’, in
Williman, ed., The Black Death
Moran, J.A.H., ‘Clerical recruitment in the diocese of York, 1340-1530: data and commentary’,
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 34 (1983) [online]
Swanson, R.N., Church and society in late medieval England (Oxford, 1989).
Swanson, R.N., ‘Clergy and manorial society in late medieval Staffordshire’,
Staffordshire
Studies, 5 (1993), 13-34.
Studies of wills:
Burgess, C., ‘ “By quick and by dead”: wills and pious provision in late medieval Bristol’,
English Hist. Rev., 102 (1987) [online]
Burgess, C., ‘Late medieval wills and pious convention: testamentary evidence reconsidered’,
in M.A. Hicks, ed., Profit, piety and the professions in later medieval England (1990)
20
Thomson, J.A.F., ‘Piety and charity in late medieval London’, Journal of Ecclesiastical
History, 16 (1965) [online]
14. Impact: art and architecture
Aberth, J., From the brink of the apocalypse: confronting famine, war, plague and death in the
later middle ages (2nd ed., 2010) pp. 247-70 [tombs]
Binski, P., Medieval death: ritual and representation (1996)
Cohen, K., Metamorphosis of a death symbol: the transi tomb in the late middle ages and
Renaissance (1973)
Evans, J., English Art 1307-1461, The Oxford history of English art 5 (1949)
Gee, E.A., ‘The Painted Glass of All Saints’ Church, North Street, York’, Archaeologia, cii,
1969 [online]
Harvey, J., The Perpendicular Style, 1330-1485 (1978)
Harvey, J., Gothic England: A Survey of National Culture, 1300-1550 (1947).
King, P.M., ‘The cadaver tomb in England: novel manifestation of an old idea’, Church
Monuments: Journal of the church monuments society, 5 (1990)
*Lindley, P. “The Black Death and English Art,” in The Black Death in England, ed. W. M.
Ormrod and P. Lindley (1996).
*Maddison, J.M., ‘Master masons of the diocese of Lichfield: a study in 14th-century
architecture at the time of the Black Death’, Transactions of the Lancashire and
Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 85 (1988)
Maddison, J., ‘The Architectural Development of Patrington Church and its Place in the
Evolution of the Decorated Style in Yorkshire’, in C. Wilson (ed.), Medieval art and
architecture in the East Riding of Yorkshire (1989)
*Meiss, M., Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (1951).
Polzer, J., ‘Aspects of the fourteenth-century iconography of death and the plague’, in D.
Williman, ed., The Black Death (1982)
Morris, R., The Church in British Archaeology (London: Council for British
Archaeology,
1983).
Van Os, H.W., ‘The Black Death and Sienese painting: a problem of interpretation’, Art
History, 4 (1981)
Willis, R., and Clark, J.W., The architectural history of the University of Cambridge (4 vols.,
1886), I, pp. 50-61 [for Little St Marys] online:
http://archive.org/details/architecturalhis01will
Woodman, Francis, ‘The vault of the Ely Lady Chapel : fourteenth or fifteenth century?, Gesta
23 (1984) [online]
15. Studies of literary works
With a focus on chroniclers, and Langland, Gower, Boccaccio, and Wynnere and Wastoure.
Alford, J., ed., A Companion to Piers Plowman (1988)
Bernardo, A., ‘The plague as key to meaning in Boccaccio's Decameron’, in Williman, D
(ed.) The Black Death (1982)
21
Du Boulay, F.R.H., The England of Piers Plowman : William Langland and his vision of the
fourteenth century (1991)
Fisher, J., John Gower: Moral Philosopher and Friend of Chaucer (1965)
Given-Wilson, C., Chronicles: The Writing of History in Medieval England (2004)
Gransden, A., Historical Writing in England. 2. c.1307 to the sixteenth century (1982)
Hersh, C., ‘ “Wyse wordes withinn”: Private Property and Public Knowledge in Wynnere and
Wastoure’, Modern Philology, 4 (2010) [online]
Kircher, T., ‘Anxiety and freedom in Boccaccio’s history of the plague of 1348’, Letteratura
Italiana Antica, 3 (2002)
*Rigby, S.H., ‘England: literature and society’, in S. Rigby, ed., A companion to Britain in the
later middle ages (2003, reissued 2009)
Salter, E., ‘The Timeliness of Wynnere and Wastoure’, Medium Aevum 47 (1978), 40-65
[online]
*Scattergood, J.V., ‘Wynnere and Wastoure and the Mid-Fourteenth Century Economy’, in
The Writer as Witness: Literature as Historical Evidence, ed. Tom Dunne (Cork: Cork
University Press, 1987), pp. 39-57
Shepherd, G., ‘Poverty in Piers Plowman’, in T.H. Aston et al., eds., Social relations and
ideas: essays in honour of Rodney Hilton (1983), pp. 169-89
*Simpson, J., Piers Plowman. An Introduction to the B Text (1990)
Spearing, A.C., ‘Dream-poems’, in B. Ford, ed., The New Pelican Guide to English
Literature. 1. Medieval Literature. Part One: Chaucer and the Alliterative
Tradition (1982)
Wray, S.K., ‘Boccaccio and the doctors: medicine and compassion in the face of the
plague’, Journal of Medieval History, 30 (2004) [online]
22