The Black Death of the fourteenth century. It is recounted by Giovanni Boccaccio in the Decameron. It was first reported in China, in the Huabei region (the same area where the coronavirus originated in 2019). It was transmitted to humans from rodents via the Yersinia Pests virus. It spread along the Silk Roads and reached Crimea via the Genoese in 1347. In Europe, it caused between two hundred and four hundred million deaths. It was the second global pandemic in history.
