Commemorating epidemics in a changing world: commemorating the plague and other infectious scourges from the Middle Ages to the present day

Epidemics that have marked the history of human societies have been the subject of active research for decades in fields as diverse as history, sociology, historical demography and archaeo-anthropology. However, the question of how these deadly events are remembered and the forms through which memory and commemoration materialised remains largely unexplored. This exploratory article contributes to filling this gap by providing an overview of the commemorative attitudes deployed by different societies, both past and present, towards these events and their victims. Based on the cross-examination of textual, iconographic and archaeological sources, the aim is to focus initially on the commemoration of the great plague epidemics that struck Europe during the Middle Ages and Early modern period. Secondly, we will look at the forms of commemoration linked to various epidemics of the Late modern period, particularly the most deadly (smallpox, cholera, typhus, Ebola, AIDS). The corpus studied highlights the diversity of the media mobilised in the construction of remembrance surrounding these events (emblematic places as material heritage, creation of memorials, celebrations and ceremonies, artistic representations). Giving a diachronic perspective, the data reported provide a converging set of evidence to the gradual changes that began in the second half of the 17th century, and even more so in the 18th century, as the ideological and political constructions of remembrance gradually took precedence over religious discourse.