Medicine Through Time - The Black Death, 1346-52

About this Course

About the Course

In this course, Professor Simon Doubleday (Hofstra University) looks at the Black Death in Europe, 1346-52. In the first module, we consider how doctors dealt with the Black Death whilst also looking at how doctors were perceived during the early modern period using Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales as a reference. In the second module, we look at the various theories of plague that physicians came up with in response to the Black Death, before in the third module turning to consider the methods that were promoted as preventing and treating the plague. In the fourth module, we look at public health more generally, in particular focusing on developments in public hygiene. In the fifth module, we turn to consider the religious responses to the Black Death, before in the sixth module looking at the differences between Muslim and Jewish responses to the Black Death.

About the Lecturer

Professor Simon Doubleday is a Professor of Medieval History at Hofstra University. He is an expert on the history of medieval Europe, in particular the Black Death. His recent publications include, The Wise King: A Christian Prince, Muslim Spain, and the Birth of the Renaissance (2015), The Lars Family: Crown and Nobility in Medieval Spain (2009), and In the Light of Medieval Spain: Islam, the West, and the Relevance of the Past (2008).