Tamara QUÍRICO

Original title: Peste Negra e escatologia: os efeitos da expectativa da morte sobre a religiosidade do século XIV

Published in Mystic and Millenarianism in Middle Ages

Keywords: Black Death, Eschatology, Italy, Religiosity.

This article shall discuss in which ways the Black Death of 1348 (as well as the recurrent outbreaks of the epidemic until the end of the century and even after) created an atmosphere of pessimism and fear, and how the apprehension of an imminent death and of the proximity of the end of the world engendered changes also in religious practices. For methodological reasons, the analysis shall focus on the Italian Peninsula, although specific examples from other areas may also be mentioned.