The most famous fictional account from the Black Death era remains Boccaccio's Decameron. Boccaccio's (1313-1375) tale of ten Florentine noblemen's adventures in the countryside begins with his description of Florence in 1348, when plague first appeared in the city. The protagonists of the story, like many people at the time, flee to the countryside to avoid the plague.

Jean de Venette's chronicle from the plague years (ca. 1359) presents a detailed description of the arrival of the epidemic in France. In addition to providing an account of the disease's effects, de Venette also lists some of the contemporary explanations for its origins.

Throughout Europe priests not only attempted to understand the epidemic that killed so many of their parishioners, they also wrote specific prayers to ward off future outbreaks. The prayer that follows, Salus populi, was ordered to be said throughout the province of Canterbury in 1382.

This painting depicts Pope Gregory I (r. 590-604) leading a procession around Rome. Gregory was elected when the plague ravaged Rome, and he immediately ordered special prayers and processions around the city in response. Here, the pope leads a large number of people in a procession, while new plague victims fall behind him. Although this painting depicts events in the 6th century, the architecture, cardinals, and friars indicate that it was painted in the 14th century, probably in response to the contemporary outbreak of plague.

The outbreak and spread of the Black Death prompted a variety of contemporary reactions. In these selections, the plague is blamed on the sins of the English (from an anonymous poem), indecent clothing (from a monk of Westminister Abbey), disobedient children (from an English treatise), and Jews who allegedly poisoned wells throughout Europe (taken from an account of a German friar).

While the plague spread throughout France in 1348, King Philip VI (r. 1328-1350) ordered the medical faculty of Paris to study the reasons behind the disease. Their account represents the most authoritative contemporary writing on the nature of the Black Death, and also sheds a great deal of light on medieval medicinal beliefs.

Undoubtedly the most profound consequence of the Black Death was demographic. The loss of so much life throughout Europe brought unexpected crises. This passage, a letter written from Pope Clement VI to the Archbishop of York on 12 November 1349, illustrates the crisis that gripped the English clergy at the time. With so many priests and parishioners dying from the epidemic, the number of clergy available to administer the sacraments, including last rites, diminished. Clement VI agreed to an emergency ordination of new priests to meet this crisis.

Among the most important of the consequences stemming from the Black Death was the loss of labor. The death of so many able-bodied workers led to a rise in the standard of living for those who survived. Rural lords were forced to offer peasants attractive wages because of the absence of cheap labor. Governments passed many attempts to limit the wages of workers in the aftermath of the Black Death, as this passage indicates. Decreed in 1349, the Ordinance of Laborers in England attempted to address many of the new social and economic conditions made possible by the Black Death. Labor problems continued to haunt the English countryside after 1349, however, and eventually contributed to the 1381 peasant uprising.

The following poem, from the 1370s or 1380s, provides insight into the ways in which people at the time dealt with death. Pearl is an elegy written for a dead girl from the English midlands, who may have died from the Black Death.

Representations of death became a prominent theme in European arts throughout the plague years. Apocalyptic images featuring the allegoric figure of Death attempted to explain the importance of the Black Death for European society. This woodcut from the mid-14th century depicts one of the most popular themes of these images, the triumph of death.

In these excerpts from his recent book, Norman Cantor likens the impact of the Black Death to that of a neutron bomb. While he does not quite endorse the claims of historians like David Herlihy, who argued that the Black Death created the modern world, Cantor does argue that the disease brought significant changes throughout Europe.

The artistic representation of death continued long after the Black Death of 1348-1349. Hans Holbein the Younger produced one of the most extensive series of artistic images on the Dance of Death in 1538, when he printed his woodblocks. This series featured a wide range of occupations, from an emperor to a simple farmer, all meeting Death. These images went through several editions, and illustrated the idea that Death awaits everyone, regardless of their stature.