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Ein Ausbruch von Seuche und Emotionen. Die synchrone Epidemie von 1259, der Vulkan Samalas und die Ursprünge der Geißlerbewegung

    Martin Bauch

VIRUS Band 22, pp. 015-028, 2023/12/28

Schwerpunkt: Epidemie und Emotion

doi: 10.1553/virus22s015

doi: 10.1553/virus22s015


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doi:10.1553/virus22



doi:10.1553/virus22s015



doi:10.1553/virus22s015

Abstract

A series of synchronous epidemic outbreaks 1259 in Europe, but also in the Near East and East Asia, which have received scant attention so far, are reconstructed here for the first time. A previously little considered consequence of the late/mid 1250s Samalas eruption is proposed here as an explanation: increased UV-B radiation due to a temporary reduction in the ozone layer caused by geochemical processes following the volcanic eruption. The combined experience of disease, harvest failure, and political conflict, against the background of older penitential practices, are seen as the cause of the genesis of the flagellant movement in Perugia in the spring of 1260 and its success throughout Europe. The spectacular and largely enigmatic genesis of the flagellants’ emotionality and radicalism is thus given an environmental historical contextualization that has eluded previous historiography on the subject.

Keywords: Flagellants, Samalas, synchronicity, penitence, emotion, Perugia, 13th century