Famine and supplies in Portugal at the end of the Middle Ages (1270-1496)

• Grant number: 20/05511-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2020
• End date: August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Cândido da Silva
• Grantee: Rudyard Rezende Vera
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Part of the historiography about the XIV and XV centuries define the period as an era of widespread famine, an element that, when added to wars and diseases, was defined as the "Crisis of the XIV century" or the "Feudalism crisis". In what concerns the famine, the aspect we approach in this project, more recent interpretations reveal that this phenomenon didn´t affect all medieval Europe at the same time and with the same intensity. This project aims to realize a data survey about the famine mentions in the Portuguese sources produced between 1270 and the end of the XV century, analyzing chronicles about the Portuguese kings and their reign, like the "Crônicas de D. Fernando" and the "Crônicas de D. João", ecclesiastic documents, as the "Crônicas dos Carmelitas", and other documents compilation, as the "Receitas e despesas da Fazenda Real de 1384 a 1481". From this data survey, we quest to understand how was the "conjuncture of the 1300" in Portugal, namely, comprehend in which manner the famine situations, the plague and the climatic phenomenon related with each other. Therefore, realizing an analysis based on collected data about the documents semantic field and considering the rhetoric they present, we will gather more information about the Portuguese context in the Late Middle Ages, something not yet explored by the recent historiography. The information obtained in this data survey will be organized in digital files that will be uploaded to a digital platform from the QFAME project, a collaborative initiative between the Universidade de São Paulo, the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Universtitat de Barcelona.