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Gabriele de' Mussis

2 stories mention Gabriele de' Mussis on DeadlyCurious.

The Footnote June 24, 2026 · Caffa (Feodosia), Crimea

The Mongol Catapult That Threw Plague Corpses Into the Genoese Garrison Probably Did Not Actually Happen

Gabriele de' Mussis's *Historia de Morbo* (c. 1348) is the source of the famous story that the Mongol khan Jani Beg ended the 1346 siege of Caffa by catapulting plague-infected corpses over the walls. De' Mussis was not at Caffa. The corpse-catapult story may be a literary invention. The Black Death still arrived in Italy from Caffa.

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The Cabinet June 18, 2026 · Port of Messina, Sicily (point of European arrival)

The Great Mortality

Between 1347 and 1351 a pandemic killed somewhere between a third and half of everyone in Europe. Contemporaries called it the Great Mortality. It was the largest single demographic event in recorded human history.

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