An Introduction to Medieval Environmental History

Medieval environmental history is a dynamic and growing field, and this article introduces some of the topics and regions that have become central to the field. As this article argues, environmental history takes advantage of new and exciting sources and methods but is also deeply rooted in older questions of medieval history. After an introduction to the range of topics this discipline works with, this article discusses in greater detail a few of the representative topics that environmental historians are exploring: climate and ecological history, the history of agriculture and water, religious history, and landscape studies. Since it is no longer possible to provide a survey of all work on the medieval environment, it also discusses a few of the regions (such as the Mediterranean and the Low Countries) that have been extensively studied. This article is intended to encourage medievalists to read further in environmental history, and to use the provided readings as a gateway to accessing the broader discipline.