#4: The Bubonic Plague

According to http://www.byu.edu/ipt/projects/middleages, the Bubonic Plague, aka The Black Death. began in China during the 1330's when fleas on disease infested rodents transferred the disease onto the Chinese. Victims of the disease experienced swollen lymph glands (buboes) as well as black spots that covered their skin.

However, the epidemic did not stay in China. Because China was a main trading center, ships traveled from there to other parts of the globe. As a result, a quick and forceful spread of the disease across Asia and Europe inevitably ensued. Europe's outbreak started when in 1347, dying men were found on an Italian ship that docked in Italy after a voyage to the Black Sea. The disease quickly spread across Italy and the rest of Europe, chaos spread alongside it. Abandonment of loved ones, requests for wills were rejected by fearful lawyers, corpses in houses without proper burial were only a few horros that accompanied the plague. Even the Italian writer Bocaccio, who is discussed in Fang's book, provided his own account of the deadly situation.

When Europeans believed the end of the plague had come with winter, they were struck with another wave during the springtime. They were ignorant of the fact that the disease- transferring fleas roamed only during the agreeable weather conditions. This deadly cycle continued adamently for the next five years until a third of the European population were dead. From a healthy population of 75 million to 50 million in 1352, a whopping twenty five million had been killed by the disease. In fact, the disease lingered along with the constant apprehension of another hard wave, until its complete disappearance in the 1600's.

Following the devestating outbreak, society experienced the beginning of more mayham with Peasant Revolts and a questioning of Chrisitanity. Because the demand for higher wages were not met, peasants across Europe began to revolt. Also, because prayers to be rescued from the plague had gone ignored, Christians were frustrated.

It was a turbulent Europe indeed and there were even more events that added to the chaos: The Hundred Years War, the Crusades, the Great Schism, etc. Even, as Fang writes, food shortages, a new money economy, lawless terrorist knights provided further destructive problems for Europe. With all this depressing social unrest, Europe needed some kind of solid and exciting social change. This was produced with the power of revolutionary printing to fuel new ideas for a Reformation and Renaissance. With this article, I was able to relate information discussed in class along with details written by Fang's Chapter 2, to form a clearer picture of the the aftermath of the Plague in terms of creating psychological disturbance, decreasing population numbers, emphasizing a need for change, as well as a number of other effects.

Luther posting 95 theses

#3: Luther and Gutenberg

During the 15th century, Europe was in the midst of religious change, which contributed to the fast adoption of printing. Equally, the printing presses contributed to the demand for religious reform.

According to Fang, Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who translated the Bible into the German vernacular, which helped more people read the Bible and relate to it in their own native tongue. This was something groundbreaking, since the Bible was officially written only in Latin. Luther was also famous for nailing his grievances on the Church doors. Books and pamphlets were printed and distributed across Europe about Luther's complaints against many of the Church's immoral activities, including indulgences.

The printing press became popular during the same time, when Johannes Gutenberg introduced an easier way to imprint text and images. In http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/1999/12/08/, the author discusses the link between Gutenberg's printing press and Luther's steps towards the Protestant Reformation.

Luther was fortunate to be at "the right place at the right time" with his radical ideas and actions. In fact, his ideas on the famous "95 theses" have become the symbol of the Refomation. All this accreditation is due to the printing press which produced his ideas about the church and reform to the population. He gained support from the masses, which strengthened his ideas and fueled the Reformation.

According to the web article, the Religion Newswriters Association compiled their top 10 list for religious events of the millenium, in which Luther's 95 theses tops. The attempt at a counter reformation was the Church's establishment of the Council of Trent. This was useless since the population was already intensely caught up in the movement of religious renewal. The second event on the list is Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, which helped mass production of the Gutenberg Bible as well as the German and English translations.

This article helped to reinforce what we have already learned about the second information revolution of printing. The popularity of the Reformation and the printing press depended on each other. Martin Luther provided the ideas for the Reformation and the printing press channelled those ideas to the public.

Sumerian Ziggurat at Ur

#2: The Sumerian Ziggurats

When I visited the website, http://www.amazeingart.com/seven-wonders/ziggurat.html, I was fascinated by a detailed article about the Sumerian Ziggurats. We were shown an example of a Ziggurat in class but I wanted to learn more about the monuments of these interesting people.

According to the article, the Sumerians or Saggigas ("The Black-headed Ones") called their country, Kengir ("The Civilized Land"). They were accurate in proudly considering their country as civilized, because they were a progressive society with roads, schools, and banking.

Under the rule of King Shulgi, Ur became the captial city of the entire Mesopotamian region. The King was a scribe who was educated in cuneiform, the writing system consisting of wedges to imprint characters. He prepared for the completion of the Ziggurat of Ur by the 21st century B.C. The Ziggurat at Ur is a pyramid whose walls tilt inwards like the Parthenon. It was constructed using solid geometry that was adjusted to imitate natural appearances and make it pleasing to the eye. The Ziggurat was believed to be the home of Nanna, the moon god of Ur. Every night, one woman was chosen to sleep in the bedroom of the god, located at the top of the monument.

However, this civilized land was destroyed after the end of Shulgi's reign, when invasions and foreign reigns and finally abandonment was the future of Ur.

I found my prior knowledge from the MCM 102 class, about geometry vs. naturalism in art and the cuneiform writing system, useful in my comprehension of the article. The Sumerians constructed the Ziggurats by balancing the geometric formulas and the naturalism of appearances, in the same way that Greeks did when building the Parthenon. The tilt was necessary to please the eye of the individuals viewing the Ziggurats. In addition, the way in which the King of Ur was boasting about his knowledge of cunieform was important because it was only for the scholarly. It was still a new writing method established in the predominantly oral society.