Reflecting on the “Black Death” in the COVID-19 Era: A Bibliography

Pierart dou Tielt. Tractatus quartus bu Gilles li Muisit (Tournai, c. 1353). The people of Tournai bury victims of the Black Death. ms. 13076 - 13077 fol. 24v.

As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has become a global illness and continues to infect and bring death, many have looked to previous pandemics (such as the 1918 flu and the “Black Death”) and their causes and consequences for any potential relevance to the present. Comparisons have proliferated in a variety of forums and in the case of the “Black Death” historians, such as Monica H. Green, have repeatedly responded to misunderstandings about the aftermath of the disease and its consequences as well as other problematic analogies. Medievalists are encouraging the media and other commentators to seek out experts on the “Black Death” before publishing misleading articles on COVID-19 and the “Black Death.” Green and Joris Roosen have put together an extensive bibliography titled “The Mother of All Pandemics: The State of Black Death Research in the Era of COVID-19 – Bibliography” as a resource for scholars, educators, the public, and the media. The bibliography is meant to be a supplement to the webinar hosted by the Medieval Academy of America (MAA) in May 2020. A recording of the webinar, with additional information, is available on the MAA website. Green and Roosen, with Nükhet Varlık and Ece Turnator, are also the project leaders for the The Black Death Digital Archive Project. While it is heartening that many are turning to the medieval past to reflect on the present crisis, it is vital that the latest research be consulted to prevent the perpetuation of ill-informed and “tired narratives” (as the historian Carol Symes wrote in letter responding to a recent piece in the New Yorker).