History of the plague of 1720-1722, in Marseille

Abstract

The plague epidemic of 1720-1722 had a profound effect on the history of the city of Marseille. A subject of numerous scientific studies and a source of inspiration for novels, one of the last great European epidemics is well-documented. In this article, we have sought to draw on the numerous documents left by the administrative services of the time or by the writings of survivors recounting their vision of the situation. We have completed this historical approach by referring to the study of mass graves of plague victims and will show how the simultaneous reading of two types of archives (historical and biological) can provide better anthropological knowledge of epidemic phenomena. The perspectives of interdisciplinary approaches to past infectious diseases are numerous, notably with the contributions of paleomicrobiology and genomics, and are particularly relevant today's health context.