Hecker estimates that from 1347 to 1351, 25,000,000
people died, or one-quarter of the total population of Europe. It
was reported to Pope Clement that throughout the East, probably
with the exception of China, nearly 24,000,000 people had fallen
victims to the plague. Thirteen millions are said to have died in
China alone. Constantinople lost two-thirds of its population.
When the plague was at its greatest violence Cairo lost daily
from 10,000 to 15,000, as many as modern plagues have carried off
during their whole course. India was depopulated. Tartary,
Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia, and Arabia were covered with dead
bodies. In this latter country Arabian historians mention that
Maara el nooman, Schisur, and Harem in some unaccountable manner
remained free. The shores of the Mediterranean were ravaged and
ships were seen on the high seas without sailors. In "The
Decameron" Boccaccio gives a most graphic description of the
plague and states that in Florence, in four months, 100,000
perished; before the calamity it was hardly supposed to contain
so many inhabitants. According to Hecker, Venice lost 100,000;
London, 100,000; Paris, 50,000; Siena, 70,000; Avignon, 60,000;
Strasburg, 16,000; Norwich, 51,100.
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