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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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