23.11.24: Level 1; review; practice in the cases; 3rd declension nouns [7]: proverbs, quotations and sayings; notes [3]

pestis, -is [3/f]: the term referring to a plague such as the Black Death, the bubonic plague pandemic in the mid-14^th century

Yersinia Pestis: a species of plague bacillus causing the bubonic plague

Just out of interest – because some fascinating images do crop up when you’re looking at this kind of topic – I’ve added an image that has nothing to do with Latin but everything to do with pestis: a Bill of Mortality, indicating the number of deaths and injuries – in one week – in London in 1665. Here are a few edited highlights with a strong suggestion that, if they didn’t know what had caused a death, they probably made it up. But it’s the figure for the plague that’s terrifying:

aged: 54

cancer: 2

“frighted”: 1

“grief”: 1

“lethargy”: 1

murthered at Stepney: 1

“sore legge”: 1

“suddenly”: 1

And …

plague: 3880

It wasn’t the bell (pestem fugō) – or the terrifying plague doctor - that chased away the Plague: a fire broke out in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane the following year which burned down most of London and, in the process, killed all the rats that were carrying the pestis.