Plague and Bohemia: A note on Elizabeth Carpentier

Ziegler (2003), following Carpentier (1962), notes the uneven geographic distribution of Black Death in 1347-1353 Europe. Some areas were totally or partially disease-free during this first plague epidemic. It is now understood that vectors and host species of these types of anthropod-borne epidemics are distributed unequally (Sallares 2007). However, the lack of plague in Bohemia during this first outbreak is unique, especially in that Prague was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Charles IV and well connected to the rest of Europe. Lastufka (1985) examined this problem in terms of topography, immigration, and trade, concluding the majority of population was already immune because of prior exposure. Here we offer a different interpretation, based on the methodology of social epidemiology and geographic pathology (Molgaard and Golbeck 2007, 2008; Molgaard, Golbeck and Ryan In Press). We note the immune hypothesis is unlikely, given that the second plague epidemic of 1357 ravaged Bohemia. What changed was the anathema of Charles IV to trade with the Hanseatic League of northern Europe. Barred from Bohemia prior to and during the first plague epidemic, the change in policy regarding the Hanseatic merchants after the first epidemic, for purely economic reasons, allowed the infected Hanseatic League traders from Germany and northern Europe into Bohemia and Silesia, thereby introducing the plague with all of its effects. The axiom that disease follows trade is clearly illustrated by this solution to the problem of Bohemia.