Order and meaning from the chaos of plague: doctors writing about the plague in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy

Abstract

This thesis discusses in detail four Italian vernacular plague tracts written by doctors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These doctors used the popular genre of plague tracts to promote their views on how to improve the physical and spiritual well-being of the people in their communities. The plague tracts illustrate their concerns about the expertise and status of doctors, apprehensions about the behaviour of communities during plague epidemics, and the ever-present fears that the plague was both a symptom of and a catalyst for immoral behaviour. This thesis particularly focuses on the connections early modern doctors perceived between spiritual and physical health and the varied solutions they suggested for the improvement of the societies the lived in.