- Canada
Richard Hoffmann
York University, History, Emeritus
- Richard C. Hoffmann, FRSC, is Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar in the Department of History at York University, ... moreRichard C. Hoffmann, FRSC, is Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar in the Department of History at York University, Toronto, Canada. After training in History at the University of Wisconsin (1965) and in Medieval Studies at Yale (1970) he practiced the craft of premodern economic and environmental history at York until formal retirement in 2008. His award-winning publications have included Land, Liberties, and Lordship in a Late Medieval Countryside (1989), "Economic Development and Aquatic Ecosystems in Medieval Europe," (1996); Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art (1997); and An Environmental History of Medieval Europe (2014). An environmental history of medieval fisheries, The Catch, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023.edit
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L'agriculture portugaise a connu incontestablement un certain type de crise pendant le dernier quart du XIVe siècle. Le dernier roi de la dynastie bourguignonne, Fernando 1°, publia sa Lei de sesmarias en 1375, pour faire face au... more
L'agriculture portugaise a connu incontestablement un certain type de crise pendant le dernier quart du XIVe siècle. Le dernier roi de la dynastie bourguignonne, Fernando 1°, publia sa Lei de sesmarias en 1375, pour faire face au « grand manque de blé et d'orge et autres produits » : il prescrivait l'utilisation de toutes les terres, le recensement des terrains incultes, et le retour des paysans qui avaient abandonné leurs terres. Deux ans plus tard, les Cortès portugaises se plaignaient de paysans et d'éleveurs qui avaient émigré des campagnes vers les villes. Les insuffisances locales en fournitures de grain stimulaient apparemment l'augmentation des importations de céréales. Celles-ci avaient débuté sporadiquement au XIIIe siècle, mais devinrent régulières à la fin du XIVe. Ainsi, le traité de Windsor (1386) considérait-il les exportations de céréales d'Angleterre en Portugal comme une branche normale du commerce entre les deux Etats.
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Across the western and northern European range of diadromous Salmo salar (Atlantic salmon) during the Middle Ages (ca.500–ca.1500 CE), this fish was a highly prized object of elite human consumption, of intense seasonal fishing, of human... more
Across the western and northern European range of diadromous Salmo salar (Atlantic salmon) during the Middle Ages (ca.500–ca.1500 CE), this fish was a highly prized object of elite human consumption, of intense seasonal fishing, of human competition, and, by the 1200s, a victim of evident depletion. What, then, enabled long traditional riverine fisheries in Scotland to become a major export producer in late medieval centuries? Provisional survey of published written records, some archival collections, and archaeological evidence establishes the great value Scottish kings and landowners placed on salmon fishing sites and their product. Knowledgeable workers for the holders of fishing rights caught salmon especially with beach seines and fixed weirs. Their catch went to elite households and urban markets for domestic consumption and was especially from the late 1300s packed in barrels for export to regions around the North Sea where diminished native runs failed to meet rising demand. Medieval Scots competed for the right to catch their salmon but did not complain that those catches were shrinking. From about 1200 royal judgments and by the early 1300s parliamentary legislation placed Scottish salmon fisheries under public regulation, prohibiting fishing at certain times and seasons and requiring all gear to permit passage of pre-migrant juveniles. Early imposition in Scotland of these limits to private fishing rights as well as an agrarian regime that (unintentionally) minimized barriers to migrants and preserved headwater spawning habitats may help explain the apparently greater sustainability of salmon stocks in Scotland than elsewhere in late medieval Europe.
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Hoffmann Richard C. José Cutileiro, A Portuguese Rural Society. In: Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations. 29ᵉ année, N. 1, 1974. pp. 248-249
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researchers and provide interesting information in specialized fields and topics regarding Anavarin and especially the forts of Anavarin-i-Atik and Anavarin-iCedid. The first appendix by Pierre A. MacKay involves the account of the famed... more
researchers and provide interesting information in specialized fields and topics regarding Anavarin and especially the forts of Anavarin-i-Atik and Anavarin-iCedid. The first appendix by Pierre A. MacKay involves the account of the famed Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi and his descriptions of the region, while the remaining three deal with the forts, their construction, history and composition. Written by Aaron D. Wolpert, John Bennet, Jack Davis, Deborah K. Harlan, and Machiel Kiel, they provide interesting, often fascinating, insights in these rather specialized topics. Finally the concordances list the names, Christian as well as Muslim, and toponyms found in the Ottoman cadastral. This book by Zarinebaf, Bennet and Davis will prove very useful to specialists of multiple fields, though in a rather uneven manner. Different disciplines will find different aspects and sections of the book very useful and others less so. As a historian I was quite intrigued by the chapters dealing with the Ottoman systems of administration of the Peloponnese and the economy of Anavarin, while I was less excited by the toponymic and settlement discussions. I would guess that a demographer would have the opposite experience. This book is likely to prove invaluable to local historians of Navarino or the Peloponnese, as well as to economic historians of early modern Greece, mostly as a reference source, but it is not a book lightly read. As a historian, however, I have to say that merely the presentation of the cadastral survey of 1716 makes this an invaluable contribution to the field and hopefully similar collaborations will finally allow more Ottoman documentary evidence regarding early modern Greece to become available to us.
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Change continued into the first half of the eighteenth century with the gradual separation of fishing and trading interests, and a decline in the dual use of shipping for either purpose. Drawing on his own previous work on the subject,... more
Change continued into the first half of the eighteenth century with the gradual separation of fishing and trading interests, and a decline in the dual use of shipping for either purpose. Drawing on his own previous work on the subject, David Butcher surveys the fishing industry and overseas commerce, providing an interesting profile of the interests and activities of a closely-formed local elite of merchants. The structure and organization of the fishing trades, which by the early eighteenth century may have provided employment for about two-thirds of the male population, are subject to close examination. By contrast the discussion ofoverseas trade is less precise and rather perfunctory, possibly because of the limitations in the surviving evidence, although the Port Books for the neighbouring and rival port of Great Yarmouth might have yielded interesting and profitable results, particularly as it was the head port of the region. The rivalry between these two East Anglian towns provoked claims during the later 1530s and early 1540s that Lowestoft was a centre for considerable smuggling, though the allegations are difficult either to substantiate or deny. In a variety of ways, therefore, the sea and maritime enterprise exerted a powerful influence over the development of Lowestoft, increasing with time during the period from 1550 to 1750. As well, this study contains a wealth of material on housing and social geography, house designs and interiors; patterns of wealth, credit and inheritance; local administration; literacy, education and local beliefs. It presents an ample body of evidence concerning the development of the maritime and urban community; among other matters, this includes discussion of the ownership ofproperty and other possessions, such as books and pictures, by merchants and mariners, the role of credit and money-lending among seamen and others, and the increasing literacy of seafarers evident after 1700. David Butcher admirably succeeds in presenting a wide-ranging and dynamic portrait of the development of Lowestoft. His study provides a detailed survey of the changing fortunes and structures of community life, which examines in a careful and nuanced way the relationship between sea and land and the contribution it made to the fashioning of an urban identity.
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Page 1. RICHARD C. HOFFMANN TBACTS ON FISHING FROM THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES Page 2. Page 3. TORONTO MEDIEVAL TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS, 12 FISHERS' CRAFT AND LETTERED ART: TRACTS ...
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<sc>barbara sasse</sc>. <italic>Die Sozialstruktur Böhmens in der Frühzeit: Historische-archäologische Untersuchungen zum 9.–12. Jahrhundert</italic>. Foreword by Wolfgang H. Fritze. (Berliner Historische Studien, number 7; Germania Slavica, number 4.) Berlin: Duncker und Humblot. 1982. Pp. 380. ...more
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Hoffmann Richard C. José Cutileiro, A Portuguese Rural Society. In: Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations. 29ᵉ année, N. 1, 1974. pp. 248-249
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"Today’s Wadden Sea is a heavily human-altered ecosystem. Shaped by natural forces since its origin 7,500 years ago, humans gradually gained dominance in influencing ecosystem structure and functioning. Here, we reconstruct the timeline... more
"Today’s Wadden Sea is a heavily human-altered ecosystem. Shaped by natural forces since its origin 7,500 years ago, humans gradually gained dominance in influencing ecosystem structure and functioning. Here,
we reconstruct the timeline of human impacts and the history of ecological changes in the Wadden Sea. We then discuss the ecosystem and societal consequences of observed changes, and conclude with management implications. Human influences have intensified and multiplied over time. Large-scale habitat transformation over the last 1,000 years has eliminated diverse terrestrial, freshwater, brackish and marine habitats. Intensive
exploitation of everything from oysters to whales has depleted most large predators and habitat-building species since medieval times. In the twentieth century, pollution, eutrophication, species invasions and, presumably, climate change have had marked impacts on the Wadden Sea flora and fauna. Yet habitat loss and overexploitation were the two main causes for the
extinction or severe depletion of 144 species (20% of total macrobiota). The loss of biodiversity, large predators, special habitats, filter and storage capacity, and degradation in water quality have led to a simplification
and homogenisation of the food web structure and ecosystem functioning that has affected the Wadden Sea ecosystem and coastal societies alike. Recent conservation efforts have reversed some negative trends by enabling some birds and mammals to recover and by creating new economic options for society. The Wadden Sea history provides a unique long-term perspective on ecological change, new objectives for conservation, restoration and management, and an ecological baseline that allows us to envision a rich, productive and diverse Wadden Sea ecosystem and coastal society."
we reconstruct the timeline of human impacts and the history of ecological changes in the Wadden Sea. We then discuss the ecosystem and societal consequences of observed changes, and conclude with management implications. Human influences have intensified and multiplied over time. Large-scale habitat transformation over the last 1,000 years has eliminated diverse terrestrial, freshwater, brackish and marine habitats. Intensive
exploitation of everything from oysters to whales has depleted most large predators and habitat-building species since medieval times. In the twentieth century, pollution, eutrophication, species invasions and, presumably, climate change have had marked impacts on the Wadden Sea flora and fauna. Yet habitat loss and overexploitation were the two main causes for the
extinction or severe depletion of 144 species (20% of total macrobiota). The loss of biodiversity, large predators, special habitats, filter and storage capacity, and degradation in water quality have led to a simplification
and homogenisation of the food web structure and ecosystem functioning that has affected the Wadden Sea ecosystem and coastal societies alike. Recent conservation efforts have reversed some negative trends by enabling some birds and mammals to recover and by creating new economic options for society. The Wadden Sea history provides a unique long-term perspective on ecological change, new objectives for conservation, restoration and management, and an ecological baseline that allows us to envision a rich, productive and diverse Wadden Sea ecosystem and coastal society."
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Abstract Book, 19th Fish Remains Working Group Meeting, Alghero-Stintino
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Forschungen verschiedener Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler der Archaeozoologie zum Thema Fisch und Fischerei der letzten 2000 Jahre – von der Römerzeit bis zum 21. Jahrhundert. Die Beiträge beleuchten das Thema unter drei grossen... more
Forschungen verschiedener Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler der Archaeozoologie zum Thema Fisch und Fischerei der letzten 2000 Jahre – von der Römerzeit bis zum 21. Jahrhundert. Die Beiträge beleuchten das Thema unter drei grossen Kategorien: der menschliche Eingriff in die Natur, das «Managements» in der Fischerei sowie der Konsum durch den «Endverbraucher». Die folgenden Kapitel untersuchen die diversen Aspekte diese Nahrungsquelle und dem Umgang damit: Gewässerschutz, Fischereiwirtschaft, Berufsfischerei, Hobbyfischerei, Fischkonsum und Fisch und Gesundheit.
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Study on the subject of fish and fishing over the last 2000 years in Northwestern Switzerland – from the Roman period to the 21st century - by various specialists on archaeozoology. The contributions cover three general areas: man’s intervention in nature; the ‘management’ of fishing; and fish consumption by the ‘end user’. The following chapters highlight the different aspects of this food source as well as its harvest through the centuries: taming nature, protecting the natural water system, the management of fishing, fishing as a profession, fishing as a hobby, fish consumption and fish and health.
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Study on the subject of fish and fishing over the last 2000 years in Northwestern Switzerland – from the Roman period to the 21st century - by various specialists on archaeozoology. The contributions cover three general areas: man’s intervention in nature; the ‘management’ of fishing; and fish consumption by the ‘end user’. The following chapters highlight the different aspects of this food source as well as its harvest through the centuries: taming nature, protecting the natural water system, the management of fishing, fishing as a profession, fishing as a hobby, fish consumption and fish and health.