The Black Death

The Second Pandemic: Recurring Waves of Plague

The Black Death of 1347–1352 was not a single event but the opening salvo of the Second Plague Pandemic, which recurred in waves across Europe and the Mediterranean for more than three centuries. These recurring outbreaks prevented demographic recovery, sustained the economic transformations set in motion by the initial pandemic, and ensured that plague remained a permanent feature of European life until the early eighteenth century.

The Pestis Secunda (1361–1362)

The first major recurrence of plague struck Europe in 1361–1362, less than a decade after the initial Black Death had subsided. Known as the pestis secunda (second plague), this outbreak was particularly devastating because it killed many of those who had survived the first wave — particularly children and young adults who had been born since 1348 and had no acquired immunity.

The pestis secunda struck England, France, Italy, and the Low Countries with particular severity. In England, the chronicler Henry Knighton recorded that the plague killed “many nobles and many lords” and that it was known as the “mortality of children” (mortalitas puerorum), reflecting its disproportionate impact on the young. The Florentine chronicler Matteo Villani, who had survived the first plague and continued his brother’s chronicle, died of plague in 1363.

The Recurring Pattern

After the pestis secunda, plague returned at regular intervals throughout the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Major outbreaks struck Europe in the 1370s, 1380s, 1390s, and at approximately ten- to fifteen-year intervals thereafter. The pattern was not uniform: some regions were struck more frequently than others, and the severity of individual outbreaks varied.

The recurring nature of the plague had profound demographic consequences. Each wave killed a significant proportion of the population — particularly children and young adults who had been born since the last outbreak — and prevented the sustained population growth that would otherwise have occurred. The cumulative effect was to keep European populations well below their pre-plague levels for generations.

The Fifteenth Century

The fifteenth century was characterised by the continued presence of plague across Europe. Major outbreaks struck Milan (1400, 1422, 1449), Venice (1423, 1439, 1478), Florence (1400, 1424, 1437), London (1407, 1434, 1450, 1464, 1471), and Paris (1418, 1438, 1466). The disease became endemic in many cities, with a baseline level of mortality punctuated by periodic epidemics.

The quarantine measures developed by the Italian city-states — the isolation of ships, travellers, and goods from plague-infected areas — were refined and extended during the fifteenth century. Venice established a permanent quarantine station (lazaretto) on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio in 1423, and similar institutions were established in other Mediterranean ports. These measures, while imperfect, reduced the frequency and severity of plague outbreaks in some regions.

The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Plague continued to strike Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though with decreasing frequency in Western Europe. Major outbreaks struck London in 1563, 1593, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665. The Great Plague of London in 1665, which killed approximately 100,000 people, was the last major outbreak in the English capital.

In continental Europe, plague remained a significant threat well into the seventeenth century. Major outbreaks struck Italy in 1575–1577 (Venice), 1629–1631 (Milan and northern Italy), and 1656–1657 (Naples and southern Italy). The plague of 1629–1631 in northern Italy, which killed approximately 280,000 people, is the setting for Alessandro Manzoni’s novel The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi, 1827), one of the most celebrated works of Italian literature.

The End of the Second Pandemic

The Second Pandemic gradually subsided in Western Europe during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The last major outbreak in England was the Great Plague of London in 1665. The last major outbreak in France was the Plague of Marseille in 1720. The reasons for the disappearance of plague from Western Europe are debated: improved quarantine measures, changes in housing and sanitation that reduced rat and flea populations, the displacement of the black rat by the brown rat, and the evolution of less virulent strains of Yersinia pestis have all been proposed as explanations.

In Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire, plague persisted longer. Major outbreaks struck the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa well into the nineteenth century. The Third Pandemic, which began in China in the 1850s, established new plague foci on every inhabited continent and demonstrated that the disease had not been eradicated.