Summary of John Kelly's The Great Mortality

Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 Feodosiya, a city on the eastern coast of the Crimea, was a Genoese port that was one of the fastestgrowing in the medieval world. The city was built as a monument to the Italian citystate’s wealth, virtue, piety, and imperial glory. #2 Between 1250 and 1350, the medieval world experienced an early burst of globalization, and Caffa was perfectly situated to take advantage of it. The port city doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in size between 1250 and 1340, and its population quadrupled a second, third, and fourth time. #3 The Genoese, who were much closer to Asia than de’ Mussis and Heyligen, probably heard rumors about the disasters, but they faced so many immediate dangers in Caffa that they could not have had much time to worry about events in faraway India or China. #4 The Black Death first spread from Asia to the Middle East and Europe, and then to China. It seems that the pestilence originated in inner Asia, and spread westward to the Middle East and Europe along the international trade routes.