The article criticizes the theory recently proposed by Duncan and Scott that plague was not due to Yersinia Pestis but was an "hemorragic fever" similar to that caused by the Ebola virus. It does so on the base of a wealth of new data related to Italian epidemics of plague in the Early Modern period. It makes use of family reconstitution techniques to measure the length of time passing between deaths in the same household; such information allows to make hypothesis about some biomedical characteristics of the disease. Lastly, the article underlines a number of problems in the current identification of the agent of plague.
Households and plague in early modern Italy
ALFANI, GUIDO;
2007
Abstract
The article criticizes the theory recently proposed by Duncan and Scott that plague was not due to Yersinia Pestis but was an "hemorragic fever" similar to that caused by the Ebola virus. It does so on the base of a wealth of new data related to Italian epidemics of plague in the Early Modern period. It makes use of family reconstitution techniques to measure the length of time passing between deaths in the same household; such information allows to make hypothesis about some biomedical characteristics of the disease. Lastly, the article underlines a number of problems in the current identification of the agent of plague.
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