1300: the population of western Europe was probably 2.5 or 3 times larger than that of 1000
    > Europe reached a demographic level that was the maximum it could afford in relation to the existing technology and patterns of soil exploitation
by 1290: the curve of demographic expansion flattened and began to go down much earlier than ca. 1350
> the most substantial growth took place in the countryside, not in cities => continuous immigration from rural to urban areas
> cities, however, could not absorb the entire surplus of population => increasing number of complains of poverty and vagabondage in the cities
    * 1330: Florence had 17,000 homeless and/or very poor people

1. The Black Death:

- the declining demographic curve went down drastically with the plague (a disease of rodents, which can be transmitted to humans by fleas parasitic on infected rats)
    > symptoms: high temperature, aching limbs, great swellings (buboes, hence bubonic plague) of the lymph nodes
    > there are two subvarieties of the disease:
            - septicaemic (infection of the blood) (1)
            - pneumonic (infection of the lungs) (2)

(2) - is highly infection (spread through coughing) and was the most frequent form of the epidemic

- the epidemic is thought of as having originated in the Far East, but there is no evidence of the plague in Chinese sources
    > first evidence comes from the Genoese colony in Crimea, Caffa, attacked by Mongols in 1347
    > Genoese ships carried the disease (i.e. the rats) to Italy in 1347
late 1347: Genoese ships brought the disease to Constantinople
mid - 1348: the plague hit France, England, Germany => spread to Scandinavia in 1349 - 50
    > a large area in Central Europe (Hungary, Bohemia, parts of Poland) do not seem to have been affected at all, though the plague swept through northen Europe to Russia
- large numbers of people died, but it is hard to tell exactly how many => perhaps between 1/4 and 1/3 of the total population of Europe was wiped out
    > the plague came back several times during the following centuries => Europe reached the 13th C. population growth only after 1600
    > last outbreak of the plague:
            - in England: Great Plague of London -1665
           - in Europe: Marseilles in 1720
- the only explanation for the end of the plague is not to be found in any improvements in hygiene of medicine; in fact, it was all because of black rats (which had carried the plague) were replaced by brown rats during the 1700s

- reactions to the plague:
        - general panic and demoralization
        - increased superstition
          * Faculty of Medicine at University of Paris declared that the epidemic of 1348 was caused by the unusual planetary conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in the sign of Aquarius, which had occurred in 1345
       - increased violence => belief that the plague was due to some kind of poisoning

Scapegoats => found => accused of spreading the plague by poisoning water sources
* spontaneous or planned persecution of Jews took place in over 80 towns in Germany between 1348 - 1350 => many pogroms took place on Sundays of feast days (=> ritual massacre of Jews)
  > pope Clement VI issued a declaration warning that Jews suffered as much as other people from the plague and therefore could not be held responsible
       - bizarre outbreaks of religious mania: the Flagellants
          > they believed the plague was God's punishment on sinful humanity => extraordinary measures could save people => bands of men and women gathered together and traveled across the country flogging one another => they preached that anyone subjecting him/herself to this for 33 days would be completely cleansed from all sins
1349: official condemnation of the Flagellants by the pope