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The Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes and the Black Death of 1498: a Poetic Description of the Plague

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The Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes and the Black Death of 1498: a Poetic Description of the Plague Le Infezioni in Medicina, n. 3, 283-294, 2018 INFECTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE 283 The Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes and the Black Death of 1498: a poetic description of the plague Costas Tsiamis1, Georgia Vrioni1, Effie Poulakou-Rebelakou2, Vassiliki Gennimata1, Athanassios Tsakris1 1Department of Microbiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece; 2Department of History of Medicine, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece SUMMARY The study is a presentation of the sole written testimo- ease in the Mediterranean during the 15th century. The ny of the great plague epidemic that struck the island Plague of Rhodes confirms the value of non-medical of Rhodes in 1498, at the time when the Order of the sources in the medico-historical and historico-epide- Knights of St. John was settled there. The Greek poem miological study of the evolution of the disease caused “The Thanatikon (i.e., plague) of Rhodes”, which was by Yersinia pestis while highlighting an enduring intrin- written by Emmanuel Georgillas Limenitis in the late sic weakness of surveillance systems. Despite modern 15th century and recounts the terrible events of the epi- means of epidemiological surveillance, the risk of re- demic, was used as a source of information. Among the laxation of a health system after a long period of ab- 644 verses of the poem, elements like the place, time, sence of an infectious disease constitutes a major factor duration and how the epidemic spread can be identi- for future resurgence of the specific disease. fied. Within the historical context of the era, evaluation and analysis of the data reveal the correlation between Keywords: Order of Knights Hospitaller, Plague, Rho- human activities and the physical history of the dis- des. n INTRODUCTION where. Various epidemic outbreaks throughout the 15thcentury, in combination with traditional ithin a few years from the resurgence of human activities like population movements, Wplague in the 14th century, the disease commerce and military campaigns, were bound turned into a pandemic - in terms of modern ep- to highlight the need for societies to protect them- idemiology - that changed Europe. Many people selves against this terrible scourge by introducing were led to believe that humanity had been sal- the most straightforward precautionary measure, vaged because plague was not accompanied by namely isolation [1-4]. Nevertheless, isolation in the end of the world. However, the disease did itself was often ineffective, either due to the in- not disappear from the continent and, when the creased virulence of the microbe or as a result of combination of ecological parameters or human the negligence, ignorance or relaxation of socie- interventions was favorable, numerous epidem- ties themselves. ic outbreaks occurred, resulting in the preser- The present study discusses the case of a plague vation of the disease in endemic areas and else- epidemic that went down in history as the Plague of Rhodes of 1498, at the time when the island was held by the legendary Order of the Knights Corresponding author of Saint John, which was famous for its pioneer Costas Tsiamis medical work. The aim is to explore the medi- E-mail: [email protected] co-historical and epidemiological accuracy with 284 C. Tsiamis, G. Vrioni, E. Poulakou-Rebelakou, et al. regard to this event with the help of a poem dat- ant statue of the Colossus of Rhodes was included ing from 1500 that describes the epidemic. among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The island also became part of the Byzantine and The “Plague of Rhodes” Roman Empires and functioned as a major trade as a primary source centre during the Middle Ages. In the 13th century The case of the great epidemic of 1498 is record- it was acquired by Republic of Genoa, whereas in ed in only one primary source, i.e. a poem enti- 1309 the island was passed down to the Order of tled “The Plague of Rhodes” (c.1500) and writ- Saint John who ruled Rhodes and the surround- ten by the Greek scholar Emmanuel Georgillas ing islands until 1522, when it was captured by (c.1445-c.1500). Georgillas was known by the so- the Ottoman Turks. briquet Limenitis, which derives from the name of In 1912, after the war between Italy and Turkey, a settlement in Rhodes called Limenio. The poet the Dodecanese became part of Italy. After World supported the Order of Saint John and he was War I, Rhodes and the rest of the Dodecanese familiar with the idea of a harmonious life and were ceded to Italy and became the Isole Italiane co-existence between the Greek and the Latin dell’Egeo. After the capitulation of Italy (1943) population. According to his ideas, the Ottoman during WWII, Germany assumed command of Empire as their common enemy was far more im- the island, which was severely damaged by the portant than the theological differences between British bombings. At the end of the war, the is- the Orthodox and the Catholic Church. While the lands were handed to the British until their uni- Greek scholars of the Late Greek medieval era fication with Greece in 1947. The effect of the ar- mainly wrote using the plural form, Georgillas chitecture dating from the time of the Knights’ uses the singular form because he addresses the and the Italian presence is evident in Rhodes reader directly. He was an eyewitness of the dis- until today. In 1988, Rhodes was designated as aster and as such he felt that it was his duty to in- a World Heritage Town of UNESCO (Figure 1). form the readers about the deadly epidemic [5-8]. The poem is written in Greek and has not been The medical work of the Order in Rhodes translated to another language, while it consists The Order of the Knights of Saint John was found- of 644 verses that recount the events surrounding ed in 1099 and officially recognised by a papal the epidemic [9]. Through his verses, Georgillas provides infor- mation about the place, time and duration of the epidemic, as well as on the measures adopted by the Knights in order to contain it. Moreover, he describes the ways in which the society reacted both during and after the epidemic. The “Plague of Rhodes” belongs to a special category of me- dieval Greek texts that describe historical events in the form of poetry, such as the chivalry poem “Chronicle of Morea” (14th century), which re- counts the founding of the Frankish Principality in the Peloponnese after the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1204), or “The Catastrophe of Crete” which chronicles the devastating earth- quake that crippled the island in 1508. A brief history of Rhodes Rhodes is the capital of the Dodecanese island complex (12 islands) in the Southern Aegean Sea at the Greek-Turkish border. The island has a long Figure 1 - The Medieval City of Rhodes. history and was a famous cultural and commer- (Source: UNESCO, htpp://whc.unesco.org/en/list/493/ cial centre already since classical antiquity. The gi- gallery). Knights of Rhodes and the Black Death 285 bull in 1113. The Order had both a military and monastic character and knights from all over Eu- rope were included in its ranks. Its members were divided into Languages or Nations (France, Italy, Provence, Auvergne, Aragon, Germany, Castile, and England). The supreme leader of the Order was an elected Magister whose title was for life. The mission of the Order members was to oversee the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem and to provide healthcare to the pilgrims. After the fall of Acre in the Holy Land in 1291, the Order resettled in Cyprus for some time. In 1309 they moved to Rhodes where they remained until 1522, when they were ex- pelled by the Ottoman Turks. After a brief pere- grination they ended up in Malta in 1530. Nev- ertheless, wherever the Knights wandered they never forgot their nursing and therapeutic tradi- tion. The legacy of Rhodes was passed on to Mal- ta, where a larger hospital was constructed and the nursing tradition of the Order was preserved. Even the Typikon (namely the statute) of the new Hospital of Malta was based on the operating rules of the Rhodes Hospital. At this point, it is worth mentioning that the Typ- ikon of the Hospital of Jerusalem, which influ- enced the writing of the Typikon of Rhodes, was in turn and to a large extent based on the statutes of the Byzantine and Islamic hospitals of the era of the Crusades [10-11]. Figure 2 - The Grand Master Pierre D’Abusson (1476- During its stay in Rhodes, the Order organized 1503). not only the military defense but also the health system of the island. The most important work early Gothic style (Figure 3). The east side of the of the Order was undoubtedly the Hospital of building is 55 meters long 14 meters high. The Rhodes. The first hospital of the Knights is dat- sides are simple without much decoration, apart ed around 1311, but gradually the need to create from the decoration of the two pointed Gothic larger premises became pressing. It is estimated doors. The technique of pointed arches of cathe- that the work of expanding the hospital premises drals was also implemented in the case of the took place between 1335 and 1356. The old hospi- Hospital of Rhodes. The back side of the build- tal (Vetera Infirmaria) continued its operation until ing is 65 meters long, while in the interior there the 15th century [12-13]. The new hospital was es- is a terrace which is reminiscent of the interior sentially a building that replaced the old hospi- of monasteries.
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