I människan själv, eller utanför?

Föreställningar om pestens orsaker i lärda skrifter och folktro

Abstract

The article examines how the causes of Black Death were conceived and discussed in two distinct contexts: learned sources from late medieval England and oral Swedish legends that were collected and recorded many centuries after the outbreak. While focused on discussions of a particular disease – plague or what is known as the bacterium yersinia pestis – the geographical, chronological and material range enables a greater perspective upon the continuities and transitions of how theories of causality are framed.