HOW THE BLACK DEATH SPREAD
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Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 unleashing a rampage of death across Europe unprecedented in recorded history. By the time the epidemic played itself out three years later, anywhere between
25% and 50% of Europe's population had fallen victim to the pestilence.
The plague presented itself in three interrelated forms. The bubonic variant (the most common) derives its name from the swellings or buboes that appeared on a victim's neck, armpits or groin. These
tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple.The awful disease was spread by black rats carrying fleas. The rats bit people and transferred the fleas onto humans. The fleas then infected the humans and the plague spread. By the time the plague died down, it had killed almost half of the entire population of Europe! After the plague went away, it resurfaced in 1666, after the Great Fire of London.
