Description
Book SynopsisRecontextualizes late medieval famines using contemporary concepts of complex human disasters, vulnerability, and resilience.
Trade Review“Franklin-Lyons shows a truly virtuosic command of a very diverse and complicated set of primary sources. Shortage and Famine in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon is so legible and lively that a reader unfamiliar with the evidence might not recognize what a truly impressive accomplishment this is in terms of archival work.”
—Jeffrey A. Bowman,author of Shifting Landmarks: Property, Proof, and Dispute in Catalonia around the Year 1000
“Using sources from an impressive array of municipal, royal, and ecclesiastical archives, Franklin-Lyons’s ambitious and timely study offers a convincing accounting of the roles that human agency played in generating or worsening food shortages within the later medieval western Mediterranean. This highly original treatment fills a notable void in medieval Mediterranean historiography, adds texture and nuance to existing work on premodern food crises, and will serve as a valuable model to scholars and nonspecialist readers interested in inequality and the essential roles played by governmental institutions.”
—Thomas Barton,author of Contested Treasure: Jews and Authority in the Crown of Aragon
