Interesting, informative read.
I especially enjoyed the way Kelly wrote of the Great Mortality as if it were a concious being (perhaps pyschopath) backpacking across Eurasia. Originally dropping in unannounced as a relative nobody, an unwanted guest plaguing the wealthy and poor alike, stirring up political and religious unrest, before eventually gaining massively grim notoriety long before hitting every stop on Its whirlwind Death Thrash Tour.

"In 1348, certain that the plague was abating, the duke emerged from hiding and settled "in a place called Sant' Andrea." Hearing of his reemergence shortly before leaving Sicily, Y.pestis paid a call on the duke at his new home and killed him."