The Plague Files: Crisis Management in Sixteenth-Century Seville Book

In the first half of the 1580s, Seville, Spain, confronted a series of potentially devastating crises: a brush with deadly contagion; the billeting of troops in preparation for Philip II's invasion of Portugal; crop failure and famine; an aborted uprising of the Moriscos (Christian converts from Islam); bankruptcy of the municipal government; the threat of pollution and contaminated water; and the disruption of commerce with the Indies. The Plague Files reconstructs daily life during this period in sixteenth-century Seville, exposing the difficult lives of ordinary citizens and shedding light on the municipal officials' struggles to find solutions to the emerging public health emergencies. Filling several gaps in the historiography of early modern Spain, this volume offers a history of both Seville's city government and of the medical profession in Andalusia. All levels of society enter the picture—from slaves to the local aristocracy. With the help of detailed records of city council deliberations, private and public correspondence, reports from physicians and apothecaries, and other primary sources, the authors recount Seville's story in the words of the people who lived it—the city's governor, the women innkeepers, the physicians who detail the nature of plague victims' symptoms. As this detailed micro history makes clear, in spite of numerous emergencies, Seville's bureaucracy functioned with relative normality, providing basic services necessary for the survival of her citizens. Cook and Cook's account of the travails of 1580s Seville provides an indispensable resource for those studying early modern Spain.