Landscape and Change in Early Medieval Italy: Chestnuts, Economy, and Culture

This innovative environmental history of the long-lived European chestnut tree and its woods offers valuable new 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.

Author: Paolo Squatriti
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 05/16/2013
Pages: 252
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781107034488

About the Author
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.