1340 – 1350s

Events in the 1340s 4

• 1340 – 1397 Jacopo da Bologna Italian Trecento composer Jacopo da Bologna was one of the earliest known Italian composers of polyphonic music. His madrigals and cacce represent the founding works of the Italian Trecento style.
• 1343 – 1400 Geoffrey Chaucer English poet Chaucer authored The Canterbury Tales, helping establish English as a major literary language.
• 1347 – 1349 Black Death devastates Constantinople The Black Death reaches Constantinople in 1347, killing approximately half the population of the city including the son of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. The plague strikes an empire already weakened by civil war, Serbian expansion and Ottoman encroachment. The demographic and economic catastrophe accelerates the empire's terminal decline.
• 1348 – 1350 Black Death in England Bubonic plague pandemic The Black Death killed a large portion of the English population.