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This book investigates environmental issues traced through the epistolography of the late Byzantine period, which spans roughly the end of the twelfth century to the mid-fifteenth century. The book's overarching goal is to shed light on the complex ways in which the Byzantines conceptualised their connection to the natural world, both in broad strokes and in finer granularity, and to provide a general understanding of societal dependence on the environment. It offers further details of this relationship by drawing on a wide variety of literary sources, as well as archaeological and environmental data.
List of contents
Part I: Natural and Human Settings: Introductions.- Chapter 1: Environmental history and Byzantine Studies.- Chapter 2: Mediterranean ecosystems, natural resources, and agricultural tradition.- Chapter 3: The philosophical and rhetorical tradition.- Chapter 4: The annual cycle as an axis of human activity.- Chapter 5: Politics, economy and environment from the Middle to the Late Byzantine period.- Part II: Environment, Settlement, and Landscapes.- Chapter 6: The Land.- Chapter 7: Air and Water.- Chapter 8: Woodlands.- Part III: Meteorological and seismic phenomena.- Chapter 9: From the Medieval Warm Period to The Little Ice Age.- Chapter 10: Tempests, pirates, and a changing climate.- Part IV: Beasts.- Chapter 11: Approaches to the alogos cosmos.- Chapter 12: Details of daily life.- Chapter 13: Final Remark: The natural environment in the Byzantine Correspondence.
About the author
Kalliope Mavrommati
is Associate Researcher, Institute of Historical Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation (Greece).
Summary
This book investigates environmental issues traced through the epistolography of the late Byzantine period, which spans roughly the end of the twelfth century to the mid-fifteenth century. The book's overarching goal is to shed light on the complex ways in which the Byzantines conceptualised their connection to the natural world, both in broad strokes and in finer granularity, and to provide a general understanding of societal dependence on the environment. It offers further details of this relationship by drawing on a wide variety of literary sources, as well as archaeological and environmental data.
