This page contains links to two case studies of cities in Italy. First, Siena is used to illustrate the pattern of the plague epidemic, and secondly, because the Italian data are so good it is also possible to look at the seasonality of deaths during a plague epidemic. This is done using Florence as an example.

Click on the photo of the relevant city to see these case studies in detail:

Geographical spread

Finally, we can also look at the geographical spread of plague using Italian evidence.

The dynamic map below shows what appears to be the diffusion of plague among the towns of Northern Italy in the epidemic of 1629-30. The red crosses mark the major towns hit by the plague, and the circles show the major towns that escaped the plague.