Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Preliminary Material / S. Kelly Wray -- Introduction / S. Kelly Wray -- Chapter One. The Notarial Evidence: Testaments In The Libri Memoriali, Demaniale, And The Provvisori / S. Kelly Wray -- Chapter Two. Illuminating The Dark Century: Notarial Evidence On Bolognas Civic Life / S. Kelly Wray -- Chapter Three. Social Reactions Of The Populace During The Black Death / S. Kelly Wray -- Chapter Four. Public Persons During The Black Death / S. Kelly Wray -- Chapter Five. Neighborhood Activity During The Black Death / S. Kelly Wray -- Chapter Six. The Individual And The Family / S. Kelly Wray -- Conclusion / S. Kelly Wray -- List Of Parishes For Map Of Parishes Of Bologna / S. Kelly Wray -- Appendix A / S. Kelly Wray -- Appendix B / S. Kelly Wray -- Bibliography / S. Kelly Wray -- General Index / S. Kelly Wray -- Index Of Medieval Bolognese Individuals (1348) / S. Kelly Wray.

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Bologna is well known for its powerful university and notariate of the thirteenth century, but the fourteenth-century city is less studied. This work redresses the imbalance in scholarship by examining social and economic life at mid-fourteenth century, particularly during the epidemic of plague, the Black Death of 1348. Arguing against medieval chroniclers' accounts of massive social, political, and religious breakdown, this examination of the immediate experience of the epidemic, based on notarial records--including over a thousand testaments--demonstrates resilience during the crisis. The notarial record reveals the activities and decisions of large numbers of individuals and families in the city and provides a reconstruction of the behavior of clergy, medical practitioners, government and neighborhood officials, and notaries during the epidemic.