The Crisis of the 14th Century: Teleconnections between Environmental and Societal Change?

Pre-modern critical interactions of nature and society can best be studied during the so-called "Crisis of the 14th Century". While historiography has long ignored the environmental framing of historical processes and scientists have over-emphasized nature's impact on the course of human history, this volume tries to describe the at times complex modes of the late-medieval relationship of man and nature. The idea of 'teleconnection', borrowed from the geosciences, describes the influence of atmospheric circulation patterns often over long distances. It seems that there were 'teleconnections' in society, too. So this volumes aims to examine man-environment interactions mainly in the 14th century from all over Europe and beyond. It integrates contributions from different disciplines on impact, perception and reaction of environmental change and natural extreme events on late Medieval societies. For humanists from all historical disciplines it offers an approach how to integrate written and even scientific evidence on environmental change in established and new fields of historical research. For scientists it demonstrates the contributions scholars from the humanities can provide for discussion on past environmental changes.

Frontmatter --; Contents --; Teleconnections, Correlations, Causalities between Nature and Society? An Introductory Comment on the "Crisis of the Fourteenth Century" --; Ventus vehemens et terribilis per totam Angliam: Responses and Reactions to a Short-term Crisis in the British Isles --; The Potential of Late Medieval and Early Modern Narrative Sources from the Area of Modern Switzerland for the Climate History of the Fourteenth Century --; Hic aues incipiunt cantare: Shifts in the Beginning of Seasons in Medieval Calendars of Rome and the Nordic Countries --; Climate and the Crises of the Early Fourteenth Century in Northeastern Europe --; Food Crisis in Fourteenth-Century Hungary: Indicators, Causes and Case Studies --; The Crisis of 1315-1322 in Bresse as Depicted in Manorial Rolls --; The Mongol Yuan Dynasty and the Climate, 1260-1360 --; Facing the Crisis in Medieval Florence: Climate Variability, Carestie, and Forms of Adaptation in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century --; The Little Ice Age and Byzantium within the Eastern Mediterranean, ca. 1200-1350: An Essay on Old Debates and New Scenarios --; Plague and Desertion - A Consequence of Anthropogenic Landscape Change? Archaeological Studies in Southern Germany --; Narratives of Environmental Events in the Winchester Pipe Rolls and English Historiography of the Early Fourteenth Century --; The Little Ice Age and the Hungarian Kingdom? Sources and Research Perspectives --; Thoughts on a Connected Fourteenth Century --; Index of Places --; Index of Names