WRITE UP YOUR DEAD

Abstract

Long before they were analyzed by demographers, the London bills of mortality circulated among the public, shaping the way people in the seventeenth century understood the geography of the city, the spread of disease, and the passage of time. Focusing on their role during the London plague of 1665, this article examines how the bills of mortality were produced, distributed, and interpreted. Reconstructing this process reveals how the reporting of the epidemic depended upon the collective efforts of hundreds of individuals acting at the local parish level. For better and for worse, the bills of mortality were collaborative texts that fed back into the collective behavior of the community.