In this book, the term the Black Death is used to signify the huge wave of plague epidemics that ravaged Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East and North Africa in the years 1346–1353. Previous studies of the Black Death have mostly concentrated on the cultural, psychological and religious effects of the Black Death, and also in relation to a specific country. The central reason for this imbalance is that little was known on the spread of the Black Death in a wider perspective, and only few demographic studies on mortality were available before 1960. From about this time, many new studies on the local spread and mortality of the Black Death were published in many countries, which can be pieced together in a synthetical and holistic account. Taken together, they provide a completely new opportunity to identify the territorial spread of the Black Death in Asia Minor, the Arab world and Europe, to identify its epidemiological characteristics and make inferences on the mechanisms of transmission and dissemination. Even more importantly, it has become possible to realistically assess the level and social structures of mortality caused by this vast plague epidemic, which is highly relevant to questions of historical impact.

The main objectives of this book are to perform a complete study of the territorial spread, epidemiology and mortality of the Black Death according to all available sources and studies, and to lay the foundation for more useful discussions of its historical impact. It is in these respects that this book’s ambitious goal is to be a complete history of that epic epidemic. (It should not be misunderstood to imply its final history.)

Surprisingly, these many fine studies had not been gathered together, collated, discussed and synthesized before, not even at the national level of analysis and synthesis. Ziegler’s 1969 book on the Black Death in the British Isles is, in my opinion, still the best general study of the Black Death. Biraben gives a valuable but brief overview of the Black Death’s spread across Europe in his 1975 study, which, however, leaves much still to be said on the subject, while his discussion of mortality is really confined to some aspects of its French history.