The tombstone, dated 1437, stands in the churchyard of St. John’s Church in Nuremberg, Germany. The inscription on it hints at a terrible tragedy that has taken place there: Was that not sad and painful to relate, I died with thirteen of my family on the same date? Such was the effect of a devastating pestilence that had swept through not only the city of Nuremberg but almost all of Europe and much of Asia as well, starting a hundred years earlier. Because it was thought to be a punishment from God, it was called “plague,” from the Latin plaga, meaning a blow or wound inflicted by a god. By.
