Abstract
Which concepts and images were used for terrible and disastrous events in the medieval millennium? This chapter answers this question by taking the example of concepts for natural extreme events such as earthquakes, storms and floods. It can be shown that in late medieval times an abstract notion filled with emotions was found to label numerous events of the same kind: “disastro” (bad star). This transculturally shaped neologism refers to the astrometeorological view of the world according to which particular star constellations have a negative impact on human environment. It was also visualized in images. Whereas this concept has developed in the Roman languages since the fourteenth century the almost forgotten concept of “catastrophe” has come into use for similar events in the German-speaking area only since the sixteenth century.
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Schenk, G.J. (2016). Disastro, Catastrophe, and Divine Judgment: Words, Concepts and Images for ‘Natural’ Threats to Social Order in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In: Spinks, J., Zika, C. (eds) Disaster, Death and the Emotions in the Shadow of the Apocalypse, 1400–1700. Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-44271-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-44271-0_3
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-44270-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-44271-0
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