Gabriel de Mussis

Gabriel de Mussis (ca. 1280 - ca. 1356) — also Gabriele de' Mussi — was a notary from Piacenza, Italy, who gave a vivid account of the Black Death (bubonic plague) in the Black Sea city of Kaffa (Feodosia) and in Sicily known as Istoria de Morbo sive Mortalitate quae fuit Anno Dni MCCCXLVIII [“History of the Disease, OR The Great Dying of the Year of our Lord 1348”] De Mussis’ account then continues to record the terror in Piacenza. Although it was formerly believed that de Mussis had been present in Kaffa and travelled in a disease-laden ship to Piacenza, it has been determined that he probably never left home. De Mussis apparently recorded an early example of biological warfare in describing the hurling of plague-infected cadavers over the Kaffa city walls by the besieging Tartars in 1346. Modern authorities believe that his description of events is plausible and may indicate that plague was successfully introduced into Kaffa by the Tartars, but that the long-standing belief that the events at Kaffa contributed to the spread of plague beyond the city is not correct.