[laotzu]

"barriers which would have restricted rats"

It is these same barriers that have, for centuries now, have restricted rats from...where?

You would think someone who spends so much lab time with rats would not so pathetically underestimate them.

[EBUCK]

The barriers should have proven to slow down the spread of the disease if the disease were carried by rats. I don't think they are saying that the barriers kept rats isolated but that they certainly hamper the intermingling of rat populations necessary to spread the disease. And it seems that the data implies that there was no sign of barriers effecting the rate/ratio of exposure.

This was the age of exploration, who knows what African/Asian disease was aboard that ship to Italy (It was Italy wasn't it?)?

EBUCK

[Sam Cree]

I agree.

What I've seen of rats, they're always around water, harbors, canals, ships, etc. Rivers would not be a barrier, but the perfect way for them to get around.

A fascinating article anyway. The plague supposedly killed off 1/3 of the population of Europe. Paintings by Pieter Breughel the Elder evoke feelings of what it may have been like in those times.