QUANDO A TERRA ADOECE:

A PESTE NEGRA SOB A PERSPECTIVA DA HISTÓRIA AMBIENTAL

Abstract

This article analyzes the Black Death through the lens of environmental history, considering its multiple causes and effects beyond the biomedical dimension. The pandemic, which affected vast regions of Eurasia and North Africa, is interpreted as a socio-environmental collapse driven by ecological, climatic, commercial, and cultural factors. Drawing on medieval medical sources — such as Guy de Chauliac, Ibn Khatima, and Ibn al-Khatib — the study examines different interpretations of contagion, environment, and healing. The circulation of Yersinia pestis across diverse ecosystems highlights the role of global connections and local conditions in the disease's spread. The plague constituted a total environmental event, in which nature, society, and medical knowledge interacted in complex ways in the face of an invisible and devastating threat.