Clothing Coffins. New Evidence on Epidemic and Crisis Mortality in Late-Medieval Douai (1340-1500)

Abstract

This article analyses mortality in late-medieval Douai (Flanders) using the unique funeral pall records of Saint-Amé parish (1340–1500). Covering more than 1,100 burials with indications on age, sex, and pall cost, they allow integrated assessment of mortality levels, demographic traits, household clustering, and socioeconomic variation in normal and crisis years. The long chronology shows recurrent mortality peaks matching regional epidemic waves, despite Douai’s mild mid-fourteenth-century Black Death. Adult sex ratios remain stable throughout. Strong household clustering marks fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century peaks as epidemic, diminishing later. Over time, crisis years show a slightly growing overrepresentation of lower-status adults, revealing an increasingly structured, socially differentiated mortality regime.