Black Death

The bubonic plague epidemic that swept across Eurasia from 1347 to 1353, claiming more lives than any war or natural disaster in human history. It is estimated that as many as 50 million people died in Europe alone. The outbreak started in Kaffa, on the Crimean Peninsula, where Khan Janibeg of the Mongol Golden Horde catapulted plague-ridden corpses into the fortified city. From there the disease travelled on Genoese ships and spread via the Mediterranean to North Africa, West Asia, and the rest of Europe via Constantinople, Sicily, and the Italian Peninsula.

Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901)), Plague, 1898.

The painting shows Death riding on a bat-like winged creature who travels

though a street in a medieval European town. Wikipedia

OCU with Chat/Gemini, The Black Death, 2026.