The people of Medieval Europe were not unaccustomed to suffering, but this was unprecedented. Arriving in Italy in AD 1347, the Black Death, now believed to be the bubonic plague, rapidly spread throughout Medieval Europe, wiping out between one-third and one-half of the entire European population. Humanity has, after all, faced pandemics like this one before - many times, in fact - and few are as memorable and menacing as the Black Death.
In predicting the future, we often turn to our past experiences.
