Communities and Crisis: Bologna during the Black DeathBologna is well known for its powerful university and notariate of the thirteenth century, but the fourteenth-century city is less studied. This work redresses the imbalance in scholarship by examining social and economic life at mid-fourteenth century, particularly during the epidemic of plague, the Black Death of 1348. Arguing against medieval chroniclers' accounts of massive social, political, and religious breakdown, this examination of the immediate experience of the epidemic, based on notarial records--including over a thousand testaments--demonstrates resilience during the crisis. The notarial record reveals the activities and decisions of large numbers of individuals and families in the city and provides a reconstruction of the behavior of clergy, medical practitioners, government and neighborhood officials, and notaries during the epidemic. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Testaments in the Libri Memoriali Demaniale and the Provvisori | 11 |
Notarial Evidence on Bolognas Civic Life | 57 |
Chapter Three Social Reactions of the Populace during the Black Death | 99 |
Chapter Four Public Persons during the Black Death | 147 |
Chapter Five Neighborhood Activity during the Black Death | 193 |
Chapter Six The Individual and the Family | 223 |
Conclusion | 261 |
Map of Parishes of Bologna | 266 |
List of Parishes for Map of Parishes of Bologna | 267 |
Appendix A | 271 |
Appendix B | 273 |
277 | |
289 | |
295 | |
Map of Bologna | 265 |
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Common terms and phrases
23 July appear August Augustinian Hermits bequests Bertolomea Black Death Bologna Bolognese brother burial butchers cent Chapter church of San Città di Castello commune Comune contado contracts daughter Demaniale dictated doctor dopnus dowry elite epidemic example executor father female testators Florence fq domini fq Johannis Franciscan Francisci friars Garisendi Giovanni heirs husband inheritance intestacy Jacobus Johannes fq July June last wishes late medieval lire lived Lucca Maggiore magister Maria del Torleone married Martin Bertram Memoriali mendicant mid fourteenth century ministrales months named neighborhood neighbors non-elites notarial records notaries occupations olim one’s parish church parish of San Pepoli Petri Piera Pini Pistoia plague Porta Procola Porta Porta Ravennate Porta Porta Stiera Porta priest Provvisori redacted Redactor registered Renaissance San Biagio San Leonardo Sant’Omobono Santa Maria set of walls sister social solidi Taddeo Pepoli testaments testator’s thirteenth century town unmarried usufruct wealth widow wife wives women