NEKA RAZMIŠLJANJA OPOS LJEDICAMA EPIDEMIJE CRNE SMRTI 1348. GODINE U DUBROVNIKU
SOME REFLECTIONS UPON THE IMPACT OF THE BLACK DEATH EPIDEMICS IN 1348 IN DUBROVNIK

Summary/Abstract: In this article author analyses some questions regarding the impact of the Black Death on the development of social life of Dubrovnik during the decades that followed, and whether this epidemic was turning-point in Dubrovnik’s history. All the extent sources witness a huge demographic loss, though it is still not possible to determine its exact numbers. On the other hand, impact on Dubrovnik’s economy is rather evident since the demographic loss caused permanent increase of all the prices. According to all the sources, this epidemic provoked a horrible terror, and made majority of people to think about their own fragileness and mortality; especially since most of them saw Black Death as a divine act. Thus, the Black Death was only the first strike (or shock) that disturbed mental structures of medieval population of Dubrovnik. It seems that those who survived thought that they managed to escape or to redeem. The actions of Dubrovnik authorities during the plague epidemic that came in 60’s and 70’s of the same century illustrate that they have not learned anything during the previous plague. The result of a supposed mental change, provoked by the plague, can be noticed in 1377 - when city of Dubrovnik organized the first health quarantine. From the all above said it is clear that the epidemic from the mid fourteenth century marked only the first step regarding the late medieval changes in social and mental structures. More significant changes in attitude towards life and death, evident in the late medieval period, were caused primarily by the constant reoccurrences of the plague in Dubrovnik and its vicinity. However, one must not omit other factors (economy and political development) as important causes of this change.

• Details
• Contents