The Black Death: A New History of the Great Mortality in Europe, 1347–1500. John Aberth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. xxii + 394 pp. $24.94.

Abstract

(rather than an exploration of literal hermaphroditism and its destabilization of the gender binary, as Long somewhat anachronistically suggests). Some essays suffer from interpretive shortcomings. Andrea Frisch’s claim that Ronsard’s use of La Franciade (1572) to link orthodoxy and Frenchness was selfdefeating, since the Merovingians were Germanic and had been pagan; Frisch seems to view the problem from a post-Enlightenment perspective (I doubt that sixteenthcentury observers would have reasoned in these terms). Two of the essays that analyze literary works offer no discussion of authorship, the context of writing and publication, or reception. Éric Durot’s essay on John Knox’s transnational influence in France addresses an important issue but requires more evidence. Few would argue with Schachter’s claim that propaganda during the French religious wars was informed by “a longstanding tradition of using allegations of luxuriousness and excessive appetites to characterize bad rulers” (239). Somehow, the hackneyed argument that “from ancient times the state allied itself to religion as a means of enhancing its control of citizens and subjugated populations alike” (271) made its way into the volume. The conclusion informs us that many contemporaries saw factionalism as the root cause of sedition. While certainly true, this finding adds little to our understanding of political culture during the religious wars. Nevertheless, many of the contributions to this collection point toward helpful avenues of further investigation.