The Black Death in the Fourteenth Century

What it is

This is an English translation, published in 1833, of a history of the Black Death written by the German physician J. F. C. Hecker. It was translated by B. G. Babington and printed in London.

Why it matters

Hecker's work was an early attempt to study the Black Death using historical and medical evidence, shaping how later generations understood the pandemic's causes, spread, and effects on society. It reflects nineteenth-century scientific approaches to a medieval disaster, including appendices on persecution of Jews accused of poisoning wells and on the Flagellant movement.

Look closer

• Why might a nineteenth-century doctor be interested in studying a fourteenth-century plague?
• What do the appendix topics suggest about the social consequences of the Black Death?
• How might views on disease causes have changed between the 1300s and the 1800s?