The “Great Pestilence”, la moria grandissima, began its terrible journey across the continent in 1347, leaving in its wake unimaginable destruction and killing 75 million people - a third of the then world population. Drawing on numerous historical sources, historian John Kelly tells the story of the plague that later became known as the Black Death in an innovative way - through the eyes of those who witnessed it. What is it like to sit and wait for the inevitable to come, knowing that in the next city a thousand people are dying a day? Choosing between your own life and your duty to a terminally ill child or spouse? Living in a disintegrating society where the bonds of family and law have lost all meaning, where anyone can kill, rape and pillage without fear of consequences? The Black Death is an extraordinary epic tale of the worst natural disaster in European history: a drama of courage, cowardice, suffering, madness and self-sacrifice that accompanied the collapse of the old world. This book clearly shows the destruction a pandemic causes if humanity does not have the strength and knowledge to resist it.