[Humans and plague in history].

"The author tries to clarify...different aspects of the relationship between man and plague in Europe since antiquity up to the extinction of pest epidemics in the 18th century.... The article deals with the consequences of the Black Death from the mid-14th century on the European [economies] and also on contemporary social conditions. It characterizes reactions of that time [to] that disaster and, afterwards, pursues the reflex of plague in art and especially in fine arts since antiquity until the 20th century." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND RUS)