Water and society in early medieval Italy

This book offers an original discussion of an element - water - and its relationship with people. In particular it shows how early medieval Italian societies coped with the problems of having too much or too little water, and analyzes their use of it. Such treatment illuminates the workings both of post-classical societies and of the environments in which these societies lived. Domestic usage, bathing, irrigation and drainage, fishing, and milling all receive full coverage. This will be of interest not only to Italianists: historians of technology, agrarian, social, and cultural historians, and environmental historians will all find much that is sumulating.