A map tracing the advance of the Black Death year by year, from the Black Sea to northern Europe. It belongs to Storica National Geographic 212.
This map accompanies the article Peste nera. La pandemia che atterrì l'Europa ("The Black Death: the pandemic that terrified Europe"), published in issue 212 (October 2026) of Storica National Geographic. It shows how the Black Death spread across Europe and the Mediterranean between 1346 and 1353.
The legend gives each year its own colour (1346, 1347, 1348, 1349, 1350, 1351, and 1352–1353 together). This lets you see at a glance which territories were affected first and which later. Arrows mark the sea routes of 1347: they start in the Black Sea area, where Caffa appears, and cross the Mediterranean to Sicily and other points along the coast.
Zooming in, you can read the names of cities, kingdoms and seas clearly, and follow the path of each arrow.
The article provides the background. In October 1347, twelve Genoese galleys reached Messina, according to the chronicler Michele da Piazza. The disease had been circulating in Central Asia for years. Italian merchants trading in the Black Sea caught it there and carried it into the Christian world. It spread quickly along the busy trade routes of the time. Within five years, the Black Death killed between a third and a half of Europe's population.
Published in Historia National Geographic no. 212, 2026-10
