Landscape and Change in Early Medieval Italy

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-1-316-63320-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 252 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 371 g

This innovative environmental history of the long-lived European chestnut tree and its woods offers valuable perspectives on the human transition from the Roman to the medieval world in Italy. Integrating evidence from botanical and literary sources, individual charters and case studies of specific communities, the book traces fluctuations in the size and location of Italian chestnut woods to expose how early medieval societies changed their land use between the fourth and eleventh centuries, and in the process changed themselves. As the chestnut tree gained popularity in late antiquity and became a valuable commodity by the end of the first millennium, this study brings to life the economic and cultural transition from a Roman Italy of cities, agricultural surpluses and markets to a medieval Italy of villages and subsistence farming.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Squatriti, Paolo

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Agrarsoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte Europäische Regional- & Stadtgeschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Primärer Sektor Agrarökonomie, Ernährungswirtschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: trees, woods, and chestnuts in early medieval Italy; 1. A natural history of the chestnut; 2. The triumph of a tree; 3. The poetics of the chestnut in the early Middle Ages; 4. Chestnuts in medieval Campania; 5. Chestnuts in the Po valley; Conclusion: Giovanni Pascoli and the old chestnut; Bibliography.

Über Autor(innen)

Squatriti, Paolo
Paolo Squatriti is Associate Professor of History and Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. He specialises in the study of the pre-industrial environment and has published on ecological and landscape change in the Dark Ages.