The Black Death

The Plague of Marseille (1720)

The Plague of Marseille in 1720 was the last great outbreak of bubonic plague in Western Europe. The epidemic, which killed approximately 100,000 people in Marseille and the surrounding region of Provence, demonstrated that the disease remained a threat even after three centuries of public health measures and quarantine regulations. The failure of quarantine in 1720 — caused by the pressure of commercial interests on public health authorities — remains a cautionary tale about the tension between economic activity and disease control.

The Arrival of the Plague

The plague entered Marseille on 25 May 1720, carried by the merchant ship Grand Saint-Antoine, which had arrived from Sidon (in modern Lebanon) via Tripoli. The ship had experienced deaths among its crew during the voyage, and the captain had obtained a false bill of health from the authorities at Livorno, certifying that the ship was free of plague.

Upon arrival in Marseille, the ship was inspected by the city’s health authorities, who noted the suspicious deaths and recommended that the ship be quarantined. However, the city’s merchants, who had a financial interest in the ship’s cargo (which included valuable silk and cotton), pressured the authorities to release the cargo quickly. The quarantine was abbreviated, and the cargo was unloaded and distributed to warehouses in the city.

Within days, the first cases of plague appeared among the porters who had handled the cargo and their families. The disease spread rapidly through the crowded, unsanitary streets of the old city, and by July, Marseille was in the grip of a full-scale epidemic.

The Course of the Epidemic

The plague intensified through the summer and autumn of 1720, reaching its peak in September and October. The disease was primarily bubonic plague, transmitted by fleas from infected rats, though some cases of pneumonic plague were also recorded.

The mortality was devastating. At the epidemic’s peak, more than 1,000 people were dying daily in Marseille. The city’s burial infrastructure was overwhelmed, and mass graves were dug outside the city walls. The streets were filled with corpses, and the stench of decomposition pervaded the city.

The public health response was hampered by the initial failure to recognise the disease as plague and by the reluctance of the authorities to impose the full rigour of quarantine. When the severity of the epidemic became apparent, more stringent measures were imposed: infected houses were sealed, movement was restricted, and a cordon sanitaire was established around the city. However, these measures were implemented too late to prevent the spread of the disease to the surrounding countryside.

The Spread to Provence

From Marseille, the plague spread to the towns and villages of Provence — Aix-en-Provence, Toulon, Arles, and dozens of smaller communities. The total death toll in the region was approximately 100,000, representing roughly a quarter of the population of Provence.

The French government, under the Regent Philippe d’Orléans, eventually imposed a strict cordon sanitaire around the entire region of Provence, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. This measure, while economically devastating, was effective in preventing the spread of the plague to the rest of France.

The Failure of Quarantine

The Plague of Marseille is remembered primarily as a failure of quarantine. The abbreviation of the ship’s quarantine, caused by the pressure of commercial interests on public health authorities, allowed the plague to enter the city. The subsequent delay in imposing stringent measures allowed the disease to spread.

The episode demonstrated that quarantine measures, while effective in principle, were vulnerable to the pressure of commercial interests and to the reluctance of authorities to impose economically costly restrictions. The tension between public health and economic activity — which had been apparent since the development of quarantine in the fourteenth century — was starkly illustrated by the Marseille epidemic.

The Aftermath

The Plague of Marseille was the last great outbreak of bubonic plague in Western Europe. The reasons for the subsequent disappearance of plague from the region are debated, but the Marseille epidemic demonstrated that the disease could still cause catastrophic mortality when public health measures failed.

The epidemic also had significant cultural consequences. The painter Jacques-Louis David’s famous canvas Saint Roch Interceding with the Virgin for the Plague-Stricken (1780) was commissioned for the chapel of the lazaretto in Marseille and reflects the enduring cultural memory of the epidemic.