Agricultural History Review, Volume 61 Part 1 (2013), p. 169

This book fills a notable gap in the literature. There are books surveying environmental history that include some discussion of the Middle Ages, but this is the first to be devoted entirely to the period. Aberth has written a number of books on the more sensational aspects of the Middle Ages, such as the Black Death and the apocalyptic disasters of the fourteenth century; he is also the author of A knight at the movies, which deals with the cinematic treatment of the period. The work reviewed here is a scholarly book, aimed mainly at students and general readers. The book is divided into three sections, one called ‘Air, water, earth’, surveying developments in medieval science, folklore, and climate over a thousand years, followed by an exploration of the ‘Forest’, and ending with a wide ranging consideration of the ‘Beast’. He suggests that relationships between humans and the natural world in the medieval period changed significantly. In the early Middle Ages people feared the natural world and regarded it as an adversary. A greater confidence in the years 1000–1300 led to a more collaborative interaction between humans and their environment, but that broke down in the fourteenth century when nature seemed to punish man.

Aberth interweaves effectively a number of themes. He gives a helpful account of the intellectual background, and guides the reader through a brief history of medieval science, which spills over into theology and magic. He traces the development of agricultural technology, and reflects recent thinking about the rise of horses as draught animals and the severity of the cattle plague of 1319–22. Aberth is similarly up to date on woodland management, forest law and the organization of hunting. The control of water as a source of power, and for drainage and irrigation is discussed, alongside the measures to supply drinking water to towns. He gives a brief outline of climatic history from the medieval warm period to the Little Ice Ages. He refers to the Lincolnshire clergyman, William Merle, who kept a weather journal – the earliest known – in the early fourteenth century. Pollution and the measures to control it also feature. He is anxious to explore the cultural dimensions of the environment, from the escapist fantasy of the greenwood in the Robin Hood ballads to St Francis and his advocacy of harmony with the natural world.

The book provides a brisk survey of a very large subject and helps the reader who wishes to know more with voluminous footnotes and a long bibliography. Aberth develops some subjects in some detail, and guides the reader through the various contending interpretations. He pursues at length the environmental history of plague and particularly the Black Death, comparing modern theories with contemporary beliefs in the role of ‘bad air’, infectious animals, and poisoned water supplies. He has a very useful discussion of the arguments for and against the view that in the era of the grands défrichements (1100–1300) forest clearance made dramatic strides, concluding that the importance and scale of the movement has been overrated. In the later Middle Ages he is concerned to investigate the idea that woodland regenerated after the Black Death, and decides that this was probably not a major feature of the period. He is fascinated by the academic debates about the differences between humans and animals: was the possession of reason confined to humans? This had implications for popular culture, for at the end of the Middle Ages animals that had wounded, killed or eaten humans were tried and executed. Aberth doubts that this showed a belief in animals’ reasoning powers, and aligns himself with those who see a link with the witch craze, in which social outcasts were charged with damaging their neighbours’ crops and livestock. He shows the range of attitudes to animals, from the belief that their function was to be exploited by man, to the sentimental attachment to horses and dogs that were treated as pets. Occasionally he devotes a little too much space to more lurid aspects of the subject such as bestiality and poaching.

This book is based on an impressively thorough reading on a complex range of themes. Aberth has done a useful job in opening a new subject and showing its interest and potential. In particular, by exploring the academic and scientific works alongside agrarian and landscape history, he indicates a potential for these hitherto separate areas of research to be more closely aligned.