Artists of the 1300s depicted death as the Grim Reaper, a skeleton on horseback whose scythe cut people down. Approximately one - third of the population of Europe died of the deadly disease known as the bubonic plague.
The plague began in Asia. Traveling the trade lanes, it infected most of Asia and the Muslim world. Inevitably it reached Europe. In 1347, a fleet of Genoese merchant ships arrived in Sicily carrying a dread cargo. This was the disease that became known as the Black Death. It got the name because of the purplish spots it produced on the skin. The disease swept through Italy…
