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The Great Plague of London, reported in a period newspaper...
The Great Plague of London, reported in a period newspaper...
Item # 679626
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August 09, 1666
THE LONDON GAZETTE, England, August 9, 1666 Not only is this a very early issue of the oldest continually published English language newspaper in the world (it started in 1665) but the bottom of the back page has an account of the week's death toll from the Great Plague which was ravaging much of Europe at that time. It reads: "The Account of this Weeks bill runs thus. The Total 336. Of the Plague 42. Decreased in all 5. Increased of the Plague 4."
A single sheet issue, 7 by 11 1/4 inches, nice condition.
AI notes: The Great Plague of London, which struck in 1665 and continued into 1666, was a devastating outbreak of bubonic plague that killed an estimated 100,000 people—nearly a quarter of the city's population. Likely transmitted through fleas carried by black rats, the disease spread rapidly in the hot, overcrowded conditions of 17th-century London. Victims developed fever, delirium, and painful swellings known as buboes, often dying within days. In a desperate attempt to contain the contagion, authorities imposed strict quarantines, locking entire households inside infected homes marked with a red cross and the words “Lord have mercy upon us.” Public events were canceled, the poor were hardest hit, and wealthier citizens—including King Charles II and his court—fled the city. The death toll peaked in the summer of 1665, and though the plague began to wane by 1667, it left a deep psychological scar on Londoners. Just months later, the Great Fire of London in September 1666 would destroy much of the city, inadvertently helping to prevent future plague outbreaks by eliminating many of the crowded and unsanitary conditions that had allowed the disease to thrive.
Category: The 1600's and 1700's
No Longer Available
