Page 45 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 13(1) (2025)

causing an ulcer at the site of the initial infec- caused around the middle of the fourteenth cen-
tion. If septicaemia occurs early, death can oc- tury by the pandemic known as the Black Death
cur before buboes appear. Pneumonic plague, (bubonic plague), which was responsible for the
on the other hand, develops either as a com- selective but widespread death of up to a third of
plication of bubonic plague or through direct the population in the middle of the fourteenth
transmission via infected droplets in the air we century and which continued to afflict Europe
breathe. It occurs rapidly, with symptoms 1–3 repeatedly until the eighteenth century, and
days after infection, and is characterised by se- led to a general demographic collapse. Without
vere pneumonia, shortness of breath, high fe- modern medical knowledge, physicians attrib-
ver and bloody mucus. This form is almost al- uted these outbreaks to various causes, relying
ways fatal if untreated and requires antibiotic mainly on the miasma theory of atmospher-
treatment within 15–18 hours of the onset of ic impurity. The Black Death led to the further
symptoms to have the best chance of survival. development of the ‘pestilential miasma’ theo- 45
While human-to-human transmission is rare ry. While fleeing infected cities was considered
in asymptomatic cases, pneumonic plague pa- the best defence, quarantine measures were not
tients can spread the disease to close contacts widespread in the Middle Ages (Jankrift 2016;
as it progresses. Therefore, all plague patients Miethke 2016).
must be isolated for 48 hours after starting an-
tibiotics, and pneumonic plague patients must b) Slovenian accounts of plague
be completely isolated until sputum cultures Among the early medical writers addressing the
are negative. Without treatment, the mortality plague in the Slovenian context, the Renais- Sensory Representations of Plague
rate is around 50%, with pneumonic plague be- sance thinker David Verbec, who was active in
ing particularly deadly if not treated promptly Germany, made significant contributions. He
with appropriate antibiotics (Turkington and wrote a critical treatise on the plague in Latin
Lee Ashby 2007, 237–239). in 1618, A Book of Medical Investigations on
Understanding the different forms of a Disputation on the Plague (orig. Exercitatio-
plague and its transmission is crucial to under- num medicarum super disputatione quadam de
standing the devastating impact of these diseas- peste liber unus). In this work, he provided a pre-
es on society. Historical records do not always cise description of the disease, which was still
provide enough information about the symp- widespread in Central Europe at the time, con-
toms to say with certainty what type of plague templated its nature and transmission and acted
people contracted and died from. But, while against quacks. The treatise proved to be so con-
modern science has given us a clear understand- troversial and misunderstood that he left his po-
ing of the mechanisms and forms of plague, sition in Ulm and moved to Augsburg in 1620.
this knowledge was not available to mediaeval During his time in Ulm, Verbec wrote sever-
physicians and the populations who faced the al works on the plague. While his Tractatus de
disease. This gap between contemporary and peste (Treatise on the Plague, Kempten 1617) is
historical medical knowledge is particularly rel- only known by its title, his main work Exer-
evant when examining the historical records of citationum medicarum super disputatione quad-
plague outbreaks and their impact on mediae- am de peste liber unus (published in Kempten
val society. in 1618) offers a comprehensive critique of J.
Among the many health challenges facing Schegkius’ De pestis curatione Germanicum con-
mediaeval cities, none was as devastating as the silium (German Policy on Pest Control). This
recurring epidemics, especially those that con- text examines the nomenclature of the plague,
temporaries referred to as the plague. By far the the causes, the symptoms, the clinical forms
greatest mass mortality of the Middle Ages was and the course of the disease. Verbec rejected