By embracing death, as in this 1493 image created by Michael Wolgemut, people were able to face up to the plague
GETTY X2, TOPFOTO X1
THE ALMIGHTY PESTILENCE
Early in October 1347, a dozen trading galleys pulled into the Sicilian port of Messina at the end of a long voyage, which had begun far to the east in the Black Sea. After the ships had docked, it was immediately clear to the awaiting merchants at the island’s harbour that something was very wrong. Aboard, they discovered that many of the sailors had perished on the journey, while the few remaining survivors were themselves at death’s door – they were coughing up blood, racked with pain and with oozing boils on their bodies. The Black Death had arrived in Europe.