The Dance of Death in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe

"TheDance of Death is meticulous, fine-grained scholarship on the cutting edge of environmental history and buttressed by excellent maps and illustrations. This broad collection -- from Reykjavik to Dubrovnik, from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth -- is especially strong on matters pertaining to human interactions with climate, disease, and locusts." – J.R. McNeill, Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, USA

"The book represents a unique collection of papers dealing with climate, environment and society in Europe during the late medieval and early modern period. It should not remain out of interest of students, scientists and further readers interested in past climate, its impacts on society and in human responses, as well as in environmental history." – Professor Rudolf Brázdil, Institute of Geography, Masaryk University, Brno Czech Republic

"Treating the 'Dance of Death' as a metaphor for impacts warfare and environmental stress had on societies across 14th through 16th century Europe, the editors have choreographed a dozen widespread regional studies for display of diverse and shared experiences of crisis, mortality, and resilience. Recommended for students and scholars of medieval studies, environmental history, and Renaissance Europe." – Professor Richard Hoffman, Department of History, York University, Canada

"The rich array of case studies gathered in this volume from across Europe and spanning five centuries place the challenges posed by climate change today in revealing historical perspective. Materially poorer and lacking the scientific knowledge of their modern counterparts, medieval Europeans are nonetheless shown as having had to contend with such transformative environmental developments as onset of the atmospheric circulation patterns of the Little Ice Age, the global fallout from equatorial mega eruptions, the unparalleled mortality inflicted by the Second Plague Pandemic and plagues of locusts of Biblical destructiveness. How well they coped with these many extreme environmental events, especially when war repeatedly stacked the odds against them, makes fascinating and often grim reading. Equally intriguing for fellow researchers are the ways in which familiar historical sources are used in unfamiliar ways and numbers of unfamiliar sources deployed to telling effect. All those interested in the emergent field of environmental history will find much herein to reflect upon. None will want to be without this book." – Professor Bruce Campbell, The Queen’s University of Belfast, UK

"The articles in this volume throw more light on the saddle period between the late Middle Ages and the sixteenth century providing a cornucopia of new insights on the history of volcanic eruptions, climate extremes, locust invasions, famines, death, migration, grain trade and landscape transformation from all parts of Europe." – Professor Christian Pfister, University of Bern, Switzerland