Ole J. Benedictow is a medical historian and professor emeritus from the University of Oslo whose work primarily focuses on the Black Death. He began his career by focusing on plague’s spread in Nordic countries and later published a book specifically on plague in Norway. He has also published articles focused on plague epidemics in specific areas of Europe and has produced studies of plague outbreaks in the early modern period. Benedictow additionally published on medieval Nordic demographics. His epidemiological knowledge of the plague and his skills as a demographer prepared him to undertake this larger study of the Black Death’s dissemination throughout Europe and its demographic impact. His estimate that the plague killed approximately 60% of the late medieval European population is controversial among plague scholars.