Posted by guillermo maynez
on 6/10/2011, 10:52:17, in reply to "Re: The Betrothed - Background"
189.178.241.246
Your hypothesis sounds right: grain imported from Turkey sounds like a more likely source than unbathed German soldiers. Remember, in "A Journal of the Plague Year", that that particular wave of plague is supposed to arrive in Marseille from the East. By the way, this has been the Plague year for us!! I never thought I would be, for so many days, reading about this horrific disease. Not that I regret it, I have very much enjoyed both books including it, plus I have recently read the simply wonderful "The Greater Journey. Americans in Paris", by the great historian David McCullough, which includes a brief description of a cholera plague in, if I remember correctly, the 1850's! I'm feeling a little sick!
--Previous Message--
: About midway through the book there is a conversation
: about the bread shortage where someone mentions that
: the authorities have taken the unusual step of
: importing grain from Turkey. Soon afterwards, the
: plague breaks out in Milan.
:
: Even in Manzoni's time the role of rats and fleas in
: the transmission of plague was unknown. It was assumed
: that the plague was carried to Italy by German
: soldiers. But the plague is native to Asia where it
: still exists among wild rodent populations. I wonder
: if these grain shipments may not have carried infected
: rats straight into Milan.
: