Is the student concentrating on 1521 going to do something about the plague as in Bubonic? The year doesn't coincide, but with fiction, he/she could work it in.

Here's the info on the three major outbreaks: There have been three great world pandemics of plague recorded, in 541, 1347, and 1894 CE, each time causing devastating mortality of people and animals across nations and continents. On more than one occasion plague irrevocably changed the social and economic fabric of society.

I read two good books on the plague last year. For some reason, I had them in my home library. Gruesome good reading.