Historiography about the mid-fourteenth century Black Death epidemic

Imajući u vidu da je Crna smrt na mnogo načina obilježila čitavo kasno srednjovjekovlje, a prema nekim istraživačima utjecala i na dalji razvoj srednjovjekovnih i ranomodernih europskih društava, nimalo ne čudi da su je opširno opisivale i američka i zapadnoeuropske historiografije. Broj radova i djela o tvoj epidemiji uistinu je velik i gotovo je nemoguće osvrnuti se na baš svaki uradak. Kad bi se tako nešto i učinilo, ovaj tekst više bi podsjećao na suhoparni popis literature nego na osvrt o najvažnijim problemima kojima se do danas bavila historiografija obrađujući Crnu smrt. Upravo ta velika količina naslova, koji se na različite načine i iz različitih gledišta osvrću na tu epidemiju, odredila je da je ovaj prilog sročen kao priča o širenju Crne smrti europskim kontinentom. Kroz tu priču prepliću se glavne teze i pitanja zastupljena u postojećoj literaturi.The Black Death left a deep mark on the late Middle Ages. Some historians have argued that it crucially informed the subsequent development of medieval and early modern European societies. It is for these reasons that Western historians produced substantial scholarship on this topic. The number of the studies is large and it would be impossible to discuss each and every one. And even if one decided to do so, this text would be a dry list of references rather than an account of the key problems that modern historiography has faced when studying the Black Death. Because of the substantial scholarship on this epidemic, this essay will focus on the history of Black Death in Europe, which will then in turn allow a study of the key theses and questions examined in literature more generally. Croatian historiography has hitherto paid little attention to this mid-fourteenth century epidemic. This is rather surprising given the substantial interest that the Croatian Middle Ages have received in the last three decades. But the histories of diseases and epidemics in Croatia have been, by and large, studied by historians of medicine only. They have applied their methodological tools to examine plague epidemics in Dalmatia and Dubrovnik relatively well. Yet we need to pay more attention to the mid-fourteenth century epidemics. The preserved archival material allows at least a preliminary assessment. A systematic examination of the extant sources should be followed up by studies into the effects of the Black Death upon the society, economy and politics of the medieval Croatian territories