Abstract
‘Private horrors’ looks at the depiction of plague in the historical sources, and explains how authors inherited a narrative framework and illustrative images they felt bound to copy. Themes of flight and abandonment are common, and many accounts depict plague as causing the breakdown of respect for laws and customs. From the sixteenth century there were new genres of publication about plague, written by a wide spectrum of authors. Much of this literature includes reports of the experiences of the officials responsible for managing epidemics, but there are also accounts of ordinary citizens who were faced with conflicting obligations to families, friends, and neighbours.
