This volume aims to bring together, discuss and further develop the findings and perspectives of two relevant debates in medieval and economic history – the fourteenth-century conjuncture and pre-industrial inequality – through nineteen original and state-of-the-art contributions in English and Italian by established scholars and promising young researchers. Focusing on Central-Northern Italy and Western Europe between c. 1270 and c. 1350, the volume aims to understand why, how and to what extent medieval society was unequal in the seventy years before the Great Plague of 1347-52, presenting a wide range of sources and methods, exploring and discussing the causal mechanisms of socio-economic inequalities, and examining how these differences were perceived, represented and dealt with in the late Middle Ages, extending the investigation in some cases to the post-Black Death period.

This volume aims to bring together, discuss and further develop the findings and perspectives of two relevant debates in medieval and economic history – the fourteenth-century conjuncture and pre-industrial inequality – through nineteen original and state-of-the-art contributions in English and Italian by established scholars and promising young researchers. Focusing on Central-Northern Italy and Western Europe between c. 1270 and c. 1350, the volume aims to understand why, how and to what extent medieval society was unequal in the seventy years before the Great Plague of 1347-52, presenting a wide range of sources and methods, exploring and discussing the causal mechanisms of socio-economic inequalities, and examining how these differences were perceived, represented and dealt with in the late Middle Ages, extending the investigation in some cases to the post-Black Death period.