GRIEF AND DESPERATION

The Black Death triggered untold panic across Europe, causing people to desert their loved ones and seek out scapegoats

- SPENCER MIZEN

A 14th-century manuscript illumination shows goods being hauled onto a boat. International trade served to fuel the spread of the Black Death across Europe

The boats that docked in T 14th-century Europe's bustling ports brought with them a dizzying array of exotic goods: furs from Russia, nutmeg from southeast Asia, sapphires and rubies from the Indian subcontinent. Yet in this increasingly globalised world, merchants also carried a commodity that you couldn't buy over the counter: news. And in 1348, that news began to send waves of anxiety pulsing across the continent.

Sailors arriving from the far east, India and western Asia brought with them apocalyptic visions of death and suffering on an unprecedented scale. Soon, tales of worms with eight legs dropping from heaven and killing thousands with their stench, and of a contagious smoke striking hordes of people dead, were filling Europeans with a deep sense of unease. These were fantastical tales indeed. Yet, at their heart, lay a hellish truth: a terrible pestilence was beating a relentless path westwards. From Venice to Vienna, Dubrovnik to Dublin, the people of Europe knew the grim fate that awaited them as the plague closed in. Worse still, they knew there was little they could do about it.

A painting by the Baroque artist Giuseppe Maria Crespi depicts a scene of desperation in Siena

When the Black Death did wash up on Europe's shores, it would prove every bit as vicious as the rumours had anticipated. It's estimated that, by the time it had finished raging across the continent in 1353, plague had killed well over 30 per cent of the total population.