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IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 216: Famine or Shortage, II: Italy in the 14th Century

Monday 4 July 2016, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Medieval Association of Rural Studies
Organiser:Adam Franklin-Lyons, Department of History, Marlboro College, Vermont
Moderator/Chair:Philip Slavin, School of History, University of Kent
Paper 216-aFretura, Carestia, or, Fam: Understandings of Food Shortage Intensity amongst 14th-Century Urban Elites
(Language: English)
Adam Franklin-Lyons, Department of History, Marlboro College, Vermont
Index terms: Daily Life, Economics - Trade, Economics - Urban
Paper 216-bThe Florentine Grain Carestia of 1329-1330: Famine or Dearth? - The Anatomy of a Market Break
(Language: English)
Marie D'Aguanno Ito, Department of History, American University, Washington, DC
Index terms: Daily Life, Economics - Trade, Economics - Urban
Abstract

This is the second panel investigating the line between major and minor food crises (see Famine or Shortage, I: Words and Definitions). These two essays provide a focused set of comparisons by looking at famines and shortages in Tuscany and Catalonia in the 14th century. The first essay argues that whatever city leaders understood of famine severity, their response was virtually identical in each scenario. The second paper returns to the question of vocabulary and discusses how we as scholars can identify a 'market break', whether or not a famine or a dearth has occurred.