Research on past environments sheds new light on material realities of the past, as well as the structures of thinking and knowing which people used to understand the world around them. Religion and science provided the frameworks for understanding nature and its relationship with men. In periods of significant social change, like the Middle Ages, people of the past retooled their understanding of how the world around them worked. Did monotheistic religion prompt a different understanding of the natural world after the Roman empire? How consistent were the patterns for understanding nature and the environment across the territories of the Mediterranean and European worlds? What bodies of knowledge were deployed to explain and understand nature?

This evening’s event features two short papers by scholars working at the cutting edge of studies in environments of the Middle Ages in Europe and Western Eurasia. After the papers, Caroline Goodson will moderate a conversation addressing new questions around the medieval environments.

Speakers:

Michele Campopiano is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Catania. He has worked on Mediterranean History, east and west, and is the author of the new book, Storia dell’ambiente nel Medioevo. Natura, società, cultura (Carocci, 2025).

Helen Foxhall Forbes is Professor of Medieval History and PI of the ERC-funded research project Science, Society and Environmental Change in the First Millennium CE at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice.