In a recent paper, Danie Curtis has given a framework for classifying preindustrial societies in accordance with four variables, these are, the property, the power, the market of basic products and the modes of production.
Managing the Commons: The role of the elites in the uses of common lands in the Midlands of the kingdom of Valencia during the Middle Ages
December 21, 2013 By
Learning by doing or expert knowledge? Technological innovations in dike-building in coastal Flanders (13th-18th centuries AD)
December 10, 2013 By
Dike construction apparently uses simple technology, with slow and gradual change; not the kind of technology that reshaped the material conditions of living, comparable to the spread of electricity or sanitation in the 19th century ‘networked’ city (and linked to the disciplining of society and the rise of domesticity and the modern self-reflexive individual) (often inspired by Latour and Foucault).
The Black Death, Economic and Social Change and the Great Rising of 1381 in Hertfordshire
December 10, 2013 By
What drove medieval people to such desperation that they felt they had no other course of action other than revolt? Was this a spontaneous reaction to a perceived injustice or a desperate response to years of simmering resentment?
The English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
December 8, 2013 By
Life for the revolutionary peasants was structured by feudal ties and obligations. The villein was tied to the soil until he could buy his freedom. He lived in a wattle and daub hut with his family and animals on a floor of mud. Work began at dawn on his few (often separated) strips of land; he was obligated to work on his lord’s land three days a week, tend and shear his sheep, feed his swine, and sow and reap his crops.
Healthscaping a Medieval City: Lucca’s Curia viarum and the Future of Public Health History
November 24, 2013 By
Healthscaping a Medieval City: Lucca’s Curia viarum and the Future of Public Health History G. Geltner (Department of History, University of Amsterdam) Urban History: 40, 3 (2013) Abstract In early fourteenth-century Lucca, one government organ began expanding its activities beyond the maintenance of public works to promoting public hygiene and safety, and in ways that suggest both […]
The Trends Toward Serfdom in Mediaeval England
November 20, 2013 By
The bald theory of progressive subjection during Anglo-Saxon times does not appear possible of definition; and even as a hypothesis, it would seem inadequate.
Grain Prices in Cairo and Europe in the Middle Ages
November 14, 2013 By
How did price levels and trends in Cairo compare to those in Europe?
Into the frontier: medieval land reclamation and the creation of new societies. Comparing Holland and the Po Valley, 800-1500
September 29, 2013 By
In the paper it is shown that medieval land reclamation led to the emergence of two very divergent societies, characterised by a number of different configurations; (a) power and property structure, (b) modes of exploitation, (c) economic portfolios, and (d) commodity markets.
Peasant Society as Revealed by a Thirteenth-Century Manorial Extent
September 2, 2013 By
Peasant Society as Revealed by a Thirteenth-Century Manorial Extent By Donald R. Abbott Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vol. 11 (1980) Introduction: Considerable treatment has been devoted to the copious local records of late medieval England. Charters, Hundred Rolls, court records, local annals, and extents have been studied in order to learn […]
Medieval Europeans and their Aquatic Ecosystems
August 23, 2013 By
Purposeful medieval fish-catching activities combined with unintended consequences of large-scale agricultural, urban, and commercial development during the Middle Ages to affect, separately and together, aquatic ecosystems and their component fish species in demonstrable ways.
Organized Collective Violence in Twelfth and Thirteenth Century Tuscan Countryside: Some Case Studies from Central and North Eastern Tuscany
July 22, 2013 By
Violence is often thought of as a characteristic of all medieval societies. How such societies chose to exercise this violence is therefore a good, and understudied, way into understanding the basic rules about how they worked. Concentrating on twelfth and thirteenth century Tuscany, my intention is to show that a specific form of violence, namely organized collective violence, was not an option available to all social groups within the medieval rural society of northern Italy…
The Heavy Plough and the Agricultural Revolution in Medieval Europe
June 18, 2013 By
This research tests the long-standing hypothesis, put forth by Lynn White, Jr., that the adoption of the heavy plough in northern Europe led to increased population density and urbanization
The Ecology and Economics of Medieval Deer Parks
May 22, 2013 By
There is a wealth of literature on a diversity of aspects of medieval parks, from their invertebrate ecologies, to rare lichens and bryophytes, to their herds of deer, their fishponds, and to the politics of fashion and taste and the provision of sport and entertainment for an affluent elite.
Cottage Gardening in the 14th Century England
April 14, 2013 By
As a student member of this research project, I spent my fall semester investigating various aspects of 14th century English agriculture and cottage gardening and blogged regularly about my findings to exchange information with the other project members.
Manure and the medieval social order
March 24, 2013 By
Taking examples from the open fields of England, it is argued that peasants used manure to differentiate their holdings from those of the lord, and by so doing helped to defne both space and their own social identity.
Hunting and Hunters in Medieval Aragonese Legislation
March 18, 2013 By
Our research on hunting in the kingdom of Aragón in the 12th-15th centuries is based on the information provided by two groups of legal texts: those for local or regional areas and those that were applied to all the kingdom after the 13th century.
The Prudent Village: Risk Pooling Institutions in Medieval English Agriculture
March 9, 2013 By
The prudent peasant chose to scatter his farm fields to protect himself and his family from idiosyncratic agricultural shocks because better alternatives did not exist. Peasants had no better way of protecting themselves from idiosyncratic agricultural shocks.
An Environmental History of the Middle Ages: The Crucible of Nature
February 16, 2013 By
John Aberth focuses his study on three key areas: the natural elements of air, water, and earth; the forest; and wild and domestic animals.
What the Paston Letters Tell about Land Owning in the 15th Century England
January 28, 2013 By
How do the terms on land and manors which appear in the Paston Letters reflect his observation? I pick up several terms relating to the land owning system in the England of Middle Ages and examine their distribution in the letters; i.e. the terms ‘villein, serf, demesne, bond, rent, and tenant.’
City and Countryside in Medieval England
January 27, 2013 By
An impressive array of data, ranging over the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, has been collected by two full-time researchers, James Galloway and Margaret Murphy. Of primary importance for the project are demesne farming accounts and inquisitions post mortem (detailing manorial land and other assets, especially again those of the demesne), both of which sources survive in very large numbers for the period under review. Also, the project incorpor- ates large amounts of data from urban records, particularly those dealing with merchants who were prominent in organizing London’s food supply.
The Heavy Plough and the European Agricultural Revolution of the Middle Ages.
January 24, 2013 By
In the period from the 9th century to the end of the 13th century, the medieval European economy underwent unprecedented productivity growth
The Impact of Climate Change on Late Medieval English Culture
December 28, 2012 By
This thesis challenges the extremes of both environmental determinism and the modernist perspective that humanity exists in social and/or cultural isolation from the natural environment.
Animal keeping and the use of animal products in medieval Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany)
December 20, 2012 By
This thesis deals with the faunal remains from several excavations in the centre of the medieval town of Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany; Figure 1-1). The aim of this thesis is to answer questions concerning the development of animal husbandry and the use of animal products in the medieval period.
Fishing with Monks – Padise Abbey and the River Vantaanjoki from 1351 to 1429
December 17, 2012 By
How did the Cistercian Abbey of Padise in Estonia first come into possession of fishing rights for salmon in the River Vantaanjoki in Finland?
Risk, Asset Markets and Inequality: Evidence from Medieval England
November 14, 2012 By
During the 12th and 13th centuries the English peasantry experienced large increases in poverty and inequality.
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