The Environmental History of the Early Modern Period: Issues, Sources, Methods and Perspectives

Lezione organizzata nell'ambito del seminario "Metodologie della ricerca", a cura di Matteo Di Tullio

  • Data: 10 FEBBRAIO 2026  dalle 15:00 alle 18:00

  • Luogo: Aula B (Via Centotrecento, 18)

  • Tipo: Seminario Metodologie

This lecture will outline the investigative methods and sources used in environmental history, as well as the main themes and issues analysed. Following a brief discussion of the origins of this approach, which has become an established discipline in certain contexts, the lecture will consider the relationship between 'modernity' and the 'environment'. In particular, we will explore how European 'modernity' may have influenced the characteristics of global socio-ecological relations and consider how the 15th-18th centuries paved the way for the Anthropocene. To this end, we will analyse useful concepts for reconstructing the history of socio-environmental relations during the early modern period, such as 'resource', 'socio-ecological regime', 'resilience' and 'vulnerability'. This will enable us to explore the varying degrees of access to the environment and the diverse ways in which social groups and cultures possess and dominate it.

Suggested readings: 

  • Di Tullio M., Fagnani M.L (2014). "Ambiente e modernità". In: Di Tullio M., Fagnani M.L. Una storia ambientale dell’età moderna Roma, Carocci, pp. 13-27.
  • Sörlin, S., Warde, P. (2009). "Making the Environment Historical - An Introduction". In: Sörlin, S., Warde, P. (eds) Nature’s End. Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 1-19.