Description
Book SynopsisHow did medieval people think about the environments in which they lived? In a world shaped by God, how did they treat environments marked by religious difference? The Keys to Bread and Wine explores the answers to these questions in Valencia in the later Middle Ages. When Christians conquered the city in 1238, it was already one of the richest agricultural areas in the Mediterranean thanks to a network of irrigation canals constructed under Muslim rule. Despite this constructed environment, drought, flooding, plagues, and other natural disasters continued to confront civic leaders in the later medieval period.
Abigail Agresta argues that the city''s Christian rulers took a technocratic approach to environmental challenges in the fourteenth century but by the mid-fifteenth century relied increasingly on religious ritual, reflecting a dramatic transformation in the city''s religious identity. Using the records of Valencia''s municipal council, she traces the coun
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Works and Arts of Men: Irrigation and Environment
2. Waters Dedicated to Some Purposes: New Infrastructure
3. For the Beautification of the City: Christian Urban Reform
4. Divine Mercy and Help: Natural Disaster and the Rise of Rogation Processions
5. Seeking the Dew of His Grace: Droughts
6. From Purification to Protection: Plague
7. That for Which the King of Kings Sent the Flood? Floods and Locusts
Conclusion
