Belgium: Flagellants at Doornik (Tournai) seeking relief from the Black Death. Miniature painting from the Chronicle of Aegidius li Muisis by Pierart dou Tielt (fl. 1340-1360), c. 1353. The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346.