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Distancing animals in medieval chronicles

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During an outbreak of pestilence in areas of Central Europe in 1271 dead people and livestock were buried in ditches; during a famine in the same region in 1243 wolves roamed the land and people fearfully hid inside their houses: later medieval chronicle reports about catastrophes such as famine, floods, epidemic disease or warfare are full of vivid accounts of their impact on the human population describing domesticated animals as fellow-victims. In contrast, wild animals frequently occur within such narratives either as causing catastrophes or as an indication of their severity. Whether or not these are topoi, they show not only the importance of animals to the perception of events, but also where contemporaries liked to draw the boundaries between species.

This talk is part of the Cabinet of Natural History series.

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