Pandemics as a Disrupter
Christine de Pizan. British Library . Harley 4431, f.259v. The writing is on the wall! Thanks to the Graffito writer of Acle. His words record the Plague that ran rampant through the population of Norfolk in the 14th Century - The Black Death. To get its meaning your Latin would need to be better than mine . Helpfully, Simon Knott provides a translation on his Norfolk Churches website: Oh lamentable death, how many dost thou cast into the pit! Anon the infants fade away, and of the aged death makes an end. Now these, now those, thou ravagest, O death on every side; Those that wear horns or veils, fate spareth not. Therefore, while in the world the brute beast plague rages hour by hour, With prayer and with remembrance deplore death's deadliness. The fashionable and literate lady in the illustration wears a horned veiled head dress. The Black Death was one of those great disrupters that mark the watersheds of history. Not so much causing change, but a catalyst accelerating