Plain Lives in a Golden Age: Popular Culture, Religion and Society in Seventeenth-Century Hollandst comprehensive study yet published of the plain lives of a 'golden age'. f plague from the first outbreak of the Black Death in 1348 to the mid fifteenth century. Through an innovative study of this evidence, Professor Carmichael develops two related strands of analysis. First, she discusses the extent to which true plague epidemics may have occurred, by considering what other infectious diseases contributed significantly to outbreaks of