Recreates the struggles within plague-stricken Italy, relating events that led to a confrontation between the advocates of science and the followers of faith.

Very occasionally the work of a fine historian transcends its own detail to illuminate our entire perspective on the past. In this concisestudy Carlo Cipolla, o

Praise for the previous edition: "...the entries provide vivid historical detail...No other work approaches this topic in such a brief, encyclopedic manner...a

Originally published in 1986, this book uses Florentine death registers to show the changing character of plague from the first outbreak of the Black Death in 1

Yet somehow the city and its residents continued to function and carry on the activities of daily life."