Jean De Venette A Chronicle Of The Black Deat

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The Chronicle of Jean de Venette is a narrative of several historical events spanning the years of 1340 and 1368, written by the Carmelite friar Jean de Venette. The Black Death was the first and most severe manifestation of the Second Pandemic, probably caused by the Yesinia pestis bacteria. Originating in Central Asia, a disease known as plague spread slowly all over the world. Though accurate estimates of mortality are difficult to make, the recent trend has been to adjust the estimates upwards. The terrible disease caused not only massive numbers of deaths, but also caused many minority groups to be blamed and persecuted for "causing" the Black Death. The symptoms were a bubo in the groin, where the thigh meets the trunk; or a small swelling under the armpit; sudden fever; spitting blood and saliva. It was such a frightful thing that when it got into a house, as was said, no one remained. There was so much death destruction that bodies would just be lying around and there was no place to bury them. People might as well fear that if they touch the bodies to bury them then they themselves would also get the disease and die. However in the chronicles of Jean de Venette, he describes that in addition to famine and war and pestilence and its attendant tribulations, one day a big and very bright star appeared above Paris, toward the west. It did not seem, as stars usually do, to be very high above our hemisphere but rather very near. As the sun set and night came on, this star did not seem to me or too many other friars who were watching it to move from one place. At length, when night had come, this big star, to the amazement of all of us who were watching, broke into many different rays and, as it shed these rays over Paris toward the east, totally disappeared and was completely annihilated. Whether it was a comet or not, whether it was composed of airy
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