Die Theorie der Seuche. Krankheitskonzepte und Pestbewältigung im Mittelalter By Katharina Wolff. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2021. Pp. 445. Hardback $82.75. ISBN: 978-3515129695.

Katharina Wolff ’ s monograph is an ambitious one, studying both medieval theories of plague and how the study of such theories was intertwined with the work of historians of medicine at the time of the bacteriological revolution. Wolff examines not only how medieval European societies coped with infectious disease but also the sociocultural significance of the historiography of medieval epidemics. “ Sickness, ” Wolff argues, “ happens to individuals, diseases hap-pen to societies ” (18, 272). Linking the disparate elements of her study is the argument that epidemics are always defined by those observing them, whether those observers are medieval chroniclers, modern scholars of the humanities, or scientists in either period