Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century

HARDBACK, "UNCOMMON," SHIPPED FROM THE UK* Edn: 1st.* Reprint.* Date of Publication: 1979 (1978)* Publisher: Macmillan, London Ltd.* Binding and cover condition: Mid-brown cloth covered boards, gilt title to spine. No bumps or rubs, no shelf wear to edges or to head and tail of spine. Small dent to top front edge. VG++* Jacket condition: No dust jacket. ND* Contents condition: PRIVATE COPY NOT EX-LIBRARY. Coloured & patterned end papers (maps of Europe in the 14th Century). Top edge dusty, and slightly spotted. Clean, crisp, tight and bright with no reading wear, no marks to text, otherwise no visible faults. VG++.* Illustrations: Three b/w line drawn maps & three 8-12pp blocks of b/w photos within text.* Pages: 597 pp. text. lxxxvi pp., bibliography, notes, index & blank pages at rear.* Description: The history of The Calamitous 14th. Century in Europe and the Middle East. The genesis of this book was a desire to find out what were the effects on society of the most lethal disaster of recorded history ~ that is to say, of the Black Death of 1348-50 which killed an estimated one-third of the population living between India and Iceland. The answer provided elusive because the 14th, century suffered so many "strange and great perils and adversities" (in the words of a contemporary) that its disorders cannot be traced to any one cause; they were the hoofprints of more than the four horsemen of St. John's vision, which had now become seven ~ plague, war, taxes, brigandage, bad government, insurrection and schism in the church. All but plague itself arose from conditions that existed prior to the Black Death and continued after the period plague was over.* A NEAR FINE text reprint copy with some minor faults but no dust jacket.*