Abstract:
Since before the establishment of the current climate regime climate change generated a wave of interest about the history of these variations. However, historians have been cautious about establishing close ties between climate variation frameworks defined from natural proxies and data extracted from written records. This article proposes to highlight the positive aspect of the issue, assuming that these variations can hardly be dissociated from crises in the context of climate pejoration. This perspective favors another approach to testimonies through specific issues of the climate issue and factors in the social tools that affected the occurrence of these crises. The article analyzes the record of the great flood of Florence in 1333 made by the chronicler Giovanni Villani in light of the transition between two patterns of atmospheric circulation. This transition, well documented, will be taken as a background fact for reflection on the perception and social occurrence of crises in a pre-anthropogenic context.
Keywords:
Climate variation; Meteorological accidents; Climate pejoration; Social reactions to the crisis