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IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 105: Understanding the Weather, Climate, and Society in the South Baltic Zone in the 15th-16th Centuries

Monday 4 July 2016, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Instytut Historii i Archiwistyki, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń
Organiser:Piotr Oliński, Instytut Historii i Archiwistyki, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń
Moderator/Chair:Emilia Jamroziak, Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte (FOVOG), Technische Universität Dresden / Institute for Medieval Studies / School of History, University of Leeds
Paper 105-aClimate of the Southern Zone of the Baltic Sea in the 15th and 16th Centuries
(Language: English)
Rajmund Przybylak, Katedra Meteorologii i Klimatologii, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń
Index terms: Daily Life, Geography and Settlement Studies, Social History
Paper 105-bClimate as the Subject of Humanistic Reflections in the 15th and 16th Centuries
(Language: English)
Waldemar Chorążyczewski, Instytut Historii i Archiwistyki, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń
Index terms: Mentalities, Philosophy, Science
Paper 105-cBad Weather as the Harbinger of War Misfortunes in the 15th Century in the Baltic States
(Language: English)
Piotr Oliński, Instytut Historii i Archiwistyki, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń
Index terms: Mentalities, Military History, Religious Life, Social History
Abstract

Do such records signal the actual decline in the weather conditions in the pre-war period? Or maybe they only prove that in various climatic phenomena writers tended to see the signs of God's will announcing imminent events? Those two questions constitute only some elements of possible interpretations. The first paper presents the various types of proxy-data which may be used for weather and climate reconstructions of the southern zone of the Baltic Sea in the 15th and 16th centuries. Finally, the main features of the weather and climate in the area under research during the 15th and 16th centuries will be described and compared to the present-day climate. An important breakthrough took place in the way Renaissance humanists thought about the weather and climate. The new attitude towards the climate and weather reveals the secularisation of the outlook on nature and the development of rational science. The last paper is an attempt to reconstruct the weather in the periods prior to the outbreak of wars in some Baltic countries, particularly in the Teutonic state during the 15th century.