This book investigates environmental issues traced through the epistolography of the late Byzantine period, which spans roughly the end of the twelfth century to the mid-fifteenth century. The book's overarching goal is to shed light on the complex ways in which the Byzantines conceptualised their connection to the natural world, both in broad strokes and in finer granularity, and to provide a general understanding of societal dependence on the environment. It offers further details of this relationship by drawing on a wide variety of literary sources, as well as archaeological and environmental data.

Kalliope Mavrommati is Associate Researcher, Institute of Historical Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation (Greece).