An environmental history of medieval Europe

Cover......Page 1
Half-title page......Page 3
Series page......Page 4
Title page......Page 5
Copyright page......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Figures......Page 10
Maps......Page 15
Preface......Page 17
Introduction: thinking about medieval Europeans in their natural world......Page 21
1 Long no wilderness......Page 41
 Natural dynamics in Holocene Europe......Page 42
 Cultural adaptations and impacts up to the Roman Climatic Optimum......Page 49
 Environmental precedents and legacy of classical Mediterranean civilization......Page 53
 ‘Barbarian’ adaptations: the Iron Age in northern Europe......Page 63
2 Intersecting instabilities: culture and nature at medieval beginnings, c.400–900......Page 71
 Environmental relations in the decline of classical civilization......Page 72
 The discontinuities of late antiquity, c.350–750......Page 77
 The pressure of a different climate......Page 87
 Anomalous adaptations for anomalous times and ecosystems: Frisia and the origins of Venice......Page 91
 The Carolingian age: window on a work in progress......Page 98
3 Humankind and God’s Creation in medieval minds......Page 105
 The White thesis, its critics and adherents......Page 107
 The limits to basic medieval Christianization......Page 111
 A hostile material world......Page 114
 Nature as sign......Page 117
 Partners: beneficent Natura and human collaboration......Page 121
 Voices of experience......Page 128
 Summation: hegemonies, diversities, and the gap between medieval ideas and action......Page 130
4 Medieval land use and the formation of traditional European landscapes......Page 133
 Bread and meat, power and numbers......Page 134
 Medieval landscapes transformed: the great clearances......Page 139
 Intensified cereal landscapes in Mediterranean Europe......Page 153
 From wetlands and other deviant forms to grain lands......Page 156
 Not by bread alone......Page 162
 Environmental consequences of new anthropogenic ecosystems......Page 168
 Sustainability in systems based on indirect solar energy......Page 175
 Traditional European agroecosystems: the north......Page 178
 Traditional European agroecosystems: the Mediterranean......Page 189
 Pastoral connections......Page 194
 Woodmanship......Page 201
 Using wildlife......Page 208
 The energy basis for medieval society......Page 216
 Inorganic resources: mining, metallurgy, and other manufactures......Page 235
 Urban ecologies......Page 247
 Assessing historic sustainability......Page 257
7 ‘This belongs to me …’......Page 261
 How medieval men (and women) possessed the earth......Page 263
 Commoners, communities, and lords......Page 267
 Higher authority: the state, public rights, and the ‘common good’......Page 283
8 Suffering the uncomprehended: disease as a natural agent......Page 299
 Pathogenic disease: introductory concepts......Page 300
 Baseline disease conditions in pre-industrial Europe......Page 303
 The ‘Justinianic plague’......Page 305
 Leprosy......Page 306
 The Black Death......Page 309
 English sweats......Page 318
 Malaria......Page 319
9 An inconstant planet, seen and unseen, under foot and overhead......Page 324
 Subterranean violence......Page 325
 Recapturing past planetary variability above and below ground......Page 333
 Medieval European climates at the century scale......Page 338
 Europe’s ‘warm’ medieval climate anomaly......Page 340
 Transition to a ‘Little Ice Age’......Page 343
 The Little Ice Age......Page 348
 Some case studies of climate, weather, and medieval cultures......Page 349
 Ecological crisis? Anthropogenic overshoot, slow chill, sudden natural shock......Page 362
 By long-term cultural evolution?......Page 371
 Unintended consequences from an anthropogenic shock: the Columbian encounter in European perspective......Page 384
Afterword......Page 391
A sampler for further reading......Page 398
Index......Page 411