The Plague Files: Crisis Management in Sixteenth-Century Seville (review)

The Plague Files details the herculean efforts of municipal authorities to circumvent the devastation of plague in Seville, one of Spain's most important and largest cities and the "gateway for transatlantic commerce" (p. 3) in the sixteenth century. City authorities struggled to maintain Seville's economic primacy and good reputation while protecting the city and its inhabitants from outbreaks of plague within the city and the infiltration of infected goods and citizens from towns and villages under the city's jurisdiction. Yet plague was not the only crisis municipal officials faced during the early 1580s; Cook and Cook examine the confluence of a succession of crises, both material and medical, and governmental responses to those crises in engaging detail. Drawing from a rich cache of city council records, private and personal correspondence, notarial records, and medical reports, among other primary sources, the authors bring to life a city in peril and recount the daily challenges men, women, and children from across the socioeconomic spectrum faced during waves of crises that included crop failure, shortages of wheat, bankruptcy, contaminated food and water supplies, and loss of livelihood and of life itself. These circumstances exacerbated the municipal government's efforts to stave off the devastation of plague and pushed the city council well beyond its means at times. Yet Cook and Cook's main point is that the city and most of its inhabitants survived because the municipal government "functioned with relative normality to provide the basic services necessary for the survival of her citizens" (p. 13) despite wave after wave of crisis over a thirty-month period.

The city council's public health measures were further compromised by the noncompliance of its citizens. It was not uncommon for citizens to disregard the cordon sanitaire and disobey public health ordinances; they transported infected goods in and out of the city in the name of maintaining commerce, absconded with the clothing and bedding of relatives who succumbed to plague for their own personal use or to sell, thereby potentially spreading the infectious disease, refused to cooperate with plague commissioners, and fled from internment in the detested pest houses. The questionable activities of some of the city's own public health commissioners, driven by incompetence or greed, further strained the city's efforts. Some commissioners enforced public health legislation only when it suited their personal interests, laxly guarded the city gates and river ways, accepted bribes, and generally abused their authority, while others abandoned the city and their posts at the first sign of plague despite stiff penalties and reprimand by the governor. Even when medical professionals could reach a consensus and identify an outbreak as plague, they often disagreed on the proper measures to take against the deadly disease, leaving health commissioners to their own devices. Further complicating the city's efforts were miscommunications and clashes over jurisdiction between town and crown, which will come as no surprise to those familiar with early modern Spanish political history.

This urban micro history boasts an impressive cast of characters from slave to city councilman, barber-surgeon to university-trained physician, innkeeper to apothecary, pauper to priest. Part of the book's appeal lies in the authors' decision to stay "close to the words of the protagonists," which allows the reader to experience the compassionate manner in which many city officials executed their duties and "almost feel the excruciating pain of those stricken down by sickness" (p. 13). It also brings to an English audience the bounty of a dense municipal archive deserving of further attention. At times, however, the authors sacrifice critical assessment to the detailed narrative, leaving the reader to discern the greater significance and importance of events. Despite this shortcoming, The Plague Files is a welcome addition to studies on public health, urban history, and early modern Spanish medical history.