"One citizen avoided another, hardly any neighbour troubled about others, relatives never or hardly ever visited each other. Moreover, such terror was struck into the hearts of men and women by this calamity, that brother abandoned brother, and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother, and very often the wife her husband. What is even worse and nearly incredible is that fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been theirs.”

Boccaccio, Giovanni, The Decameron vol. I

What happens when society is faced with a pandemic that results in over half of the population dying?, 14th Century

While this is undoubtedly the realm of apocalyptic literature, we do actually have a case study to draw on - The Black Death, which hit Europe between 1347-9 and resulted in significant mortality and social change.

In this episode we travel back in time to uncover the impact of the Black Death and explore how people and society responded to and surprisingly carried on after such a cataclysmic event.

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