Conflicts over Water Management and Water Rights from the End of Antiquity to Industrialisation

Few natural resources can be more important than water. And this is precisely why few resources can be the subject of greater conflict than water itself.

This volume, edited by two internationally renowned specialists on the topic of water management research, brings together eleven experts from all over the world to propose as many innovative studies as possible that fully understand the scope of this issue for historical research but also for environmental science. The contributors break with a tradition of Eurocentric research on these times by bringing together research that covers not only Western, Central and Southern Europe but also India, China and Sri Lanka. The thematic coherence together with the geographical but also chronological range (5th-18th centuries) make it an essential starting point for all future studies on the subject.

Michele Campopiano is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Catania. Between 2014 and 2024 he was Associate Professor at the University of York. He has published several articles on the history of water management and theory and historiography on the subject in various international journals. Campopiano is winner of the San Francesco Prize 2021.

Gerrit Jasper Schenk is Professor of Medieval History at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. His research focuses on historical disaster research, environmental history, history of infrastructure, urban history, rituals and ceremonies. His main areas of interest are the late medieval and early modern periods of the Holy Roman Empire and Italy. Schenk has curated several historical exhibitions. Currently he is leading research projects on the "fluvial anthroposphere".