booK SERiES oN CLiMaTE RECoNSTRUCTioN oF THE CzECH LaNDS

Historical climatology is defined as a “research field situated at the interface of climato­ logy and (environmental) history dealing mainly with documentary evidence and using the methodology of both climatology and history” (Brázdil et al., 2005). following the same source, “(i) it aims at reconstructing temporal and spatial patterns of weather and climate, as well as climate related natural disasters, for the period prior to the creation of national meteoro­ logical networks (mainly for the last millennium); (ii) it investigates the vulnerability of past societies and economies to climate variations, climate extremes and natural disasters and (iii) it explores past discourses and the social representations of the climate”. the main sources of Historical Climatology range from documentary written evidence, instrumental data and material sources, such as pictorial evidence or floodmarks that specify the spatial extension of extreme weather events, as well as ‘natural’ sources. this diversity explains the interdisciplina­ rity of this research domain, as biologists, geographers, geologists, historians, meteorologists and physicists work together to reconstruct climates of the past. this reconstruction also contributes to help to understand the present and to project future climate changes. Historical Climatology is a rather recent research field. according to Brázdil et al. (2005), there were some early studies in the 19th century, but the great development in this field began in the 20th century. reference scholars in the area are gordon Manley (1902 ­1980), Hermann flohn (1912 ­1997), Hubert Lamb (1913 ­1997), emmanuel Le roy Ladurie (*1929) and Chris­ tian Pfister (*1944), who is frequently considered the founder of modern Historical Climatolo­ gy. several other scientists, such as r. Brázdil, D. Camuffo, D. Wheeler, H. Wanner, J. Luter­ bacher, among many others, have written a vast number of papers in international peer ­reviewed journals such as Climate Change, The Holocene, Climates of the Past, International Journal of Climatology. after the first steps of individuals and of small research groups in Western and Central europe until the 1990s, several projects gathered scientists from a greater number of countries and contributed to the pronounced development in this field, “stimulated by the discussion related to enhanced greenhouse effect” (Vol. Vii). from the aDViCe (annual to Decadal Variability in Climate in europe, 1996 ­1998) to the Millennium Project (2006 ­2010) the internationalisation became greater and the interdisciplinary was significantly developed.