Peste, sepolture e monete in età medievale. Un mutamento nell’uso?

The recent development of molecular palaeo-microbiology and archaeo-anthropology, thanks to the acquisition to discern the presence of particular pathogens in ancient human remains, makes it possible to detect, on a scientifically substantiated basis, the presence of coins in burials that received plague victims. These coin findings have been interpreted by scholars with different views (ritual/devotional vs. economic/practical), based on how the healthy interacted with the infected deceased and how their clothing and any coins they carried were treated. The dressing or undressing of the dead and their burial had to be adapted to the awareness or otherwise of the transmissibility of the disease through the handling of objects touched by the plague victims. The present paper aims to interrogate this consciousness during the Second Pandemic of Plague (1346-circa 1690), by drawing upon medical literature, city chronicles detailing the various plague waves, and the measures implemented by health authorities to combat the disease.