Richard Hoffmann is Professor Emeritus in History at York University, Toronto, and author of the acclaimed An Environmental History of Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2014).

'The Catch represents a landmark contribution to pre-modern environmental history. Its multi-disciplinary approach to the ecosystems, habitats, consumers, and exploiters of medieval fisheries convincingly tracks historic changes in fisheries caused not only by human contact but also by climatic conditions that affected hydrology, biology, and ecology. Supported with numerous charts, maps, and data drawn from research on a wide variety of source material across Europe, Hoffman's study will be the standard work in the field for years to come.' Maryanne Kowaleski, Fordham University

• Introduction; Considering fisheries: medieval Europe and its legacies; 1. 'Natural' aquatic ecosystems around Late Holocene Europe; 2. Protein, penance, and prestige: medieval demand for fish; 3. Take and eat: subsistence fishing in and beyond the Early Middle Ages; 4. Master artisans and local markets; 5. Aquatic systems under stress, ca. 1000–1350; 6. Cultural responses to scarcities of fish; 7. Going beyond natural local ecosystems I: carp aquaculture as ecological revolution; 8. Going beyond natural local ecosystems II: over the horizon toward abundance and 'tragedy'; 9. Last casts: two perspectives on past environmental relations.

Richard Hoffmann is Professor Emeritus in History at York University, Toronto, and author of the acclaimed An Environmental History of Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2014).

'The Catch represents a landmark contribution to pre-modern environmental history. Its multi-disciplinary approach to the ecosystems, habitats, consumers, and exploiters of medieval fisheries convincingly tracks historic changes in fisheries caused not only by human contact but also by climatic conditions that affected hydrology, biology, and ecology. Supported with numerous charts, maps, and data drawn from research on a wide variety of source material across Europe, Hoffman's study will be the standard work in the field for years to come.' Maryanne Kowaleski, Fordham University

• Introduction; Considering fisheries: medieval Europe and its legacies; 1. 'Natural' aquatic ecosystems around Late Holocene Europe; 2. Protein, penance, and prestige: medieval demand for fish; 3. Take and eat: subsistence fishing in and beyond the Early Middle Ages; 4. Master artisans and local markets; 5. Aquatic systems under stress, ca. 1000–1350; 6. Cultural responses to scarcities of fish; 7. Going beyond natural local ecosystems I: carp aquaculture as ecological revolution; 8. Going beyond natural local ecosystems II: over the horizon toward abundance and 'tragedy'; 9. Last casts: two perspectives on past environmental relations.