The article by deCastro et al. is of great interest but requires revisions. Many key relevant works in climate history, that the authors could cite in the introduction, are missing. Instead they cite outdated popular science book about the Little Ice Age by Fagan (2001). I have at the end of this review listed some additional potential references to cite for the Introduction and Discussion. Also key literature about erosive precipitation in Italy is missing and could be cited. The entire Introduction section could be more concise and better relate to state-of-the-art climate history research for Europe.

The English language requires additional polishing. In particular, the title contains a severe error. The Article concerns the 1760s – thus the 18^th century – and NOT the 17^th century (the 1600s) as stated in the title. It would be better to have the quotations of sources, in English, i the main text and place the original after within parentheses (and avoid footnotes altogether).

Much of the links to the data sources on pp. 8–9 code instead be include be listed in a Data Availability Statement at the end of the article. It is enough in the actual Method section to describe the data sources but how to find them can instead be placed in a Data Availability Statement.

Minor comments:

Line 80: Formulation “most of the south and Mediterranean” is unclear.

Line 209: Better to write 18^th century and 21^st century.

Table 2: Please state period.

Table 3: Please state sources and location.

General: Avoid abbreviations such as “IP” for the Iberian Peninsula. It makes the text harder to read.

Line 559: Avoid words like “unprecedented”. The authors themselves mention that 1740 might had worse famine mortality.

Suggestion of additional references to cite:

Collet, D. and Schuh, M., eds.: Famines During the ‘Little Ice Age’ (1300–1800): Socio-natural Entanglements in Premodern Societies, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54337-6, 2018.

Diodato, N., Ljungqvist, F.C. & Bellocchi, G., A millennium-long reconstruction of damaging hydrological events across Italy. Scientific Reports, 9 (2019): 9963.

Diodato, N., Ljungqvist, F.C. & Bellocchi, G. A millennium-long climate history of erosive storms across the Tiber River Basin, Italy, from 725 to 2019 CE. Scientific Reports, 11 (2021): 20518.

Diodato, N., Ljungqvist, F.C. & Bellocchi, G. Outcome of environmental change from historical sediment discharge in a Mediterranean fluvial basin, 1500–2019 CE. Environmental Research Communications, 3 (2021): 071002.

Diodato, N., Ljungqvist, F.C. & Bellocchi, G. Climate patterns in the world’s longest history of diluvial storm-erosivity: the Arno River Basin, Italy, 1000–2019 CE. Frontiers in Earth Science, 9 (2021): 637973.

Diodato, N., Ljungqvist, F.C. & Bellocchi, G. Fingerprint of climate change in precipitation aggressiveness across the central Mediterranean area. Scientific Reports, 10 (2020): 22062.

Galloway, P. R.: Secular changes in the short-term preventive, positive, and temperature checks to population growth in Europe, 1460 to 1909, Clim. Change, 26, 3–63, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01094008, 1994.

Ljungqvist, F. C., Seim, A., and Huhtamaa, H.: Climate and society in European history, Wiley Interdisciplin. Rev.: Clim. Change, 12, e691, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.691, 2021.

Ljungqvist, F. C., Christiansen, B., Esper, J., Huhtamaa, H., Leijonhufvud, L., Pfister, C., Seim, A., Skoglund, M. K., and Thejll, P.: Climatic signatures in early modern European grain harvest yields, Clim. Past, 19, 2463–2491, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2463-2023, 2023.

Ljungqvist, F. C., Seim, A., and Collet, D.: Famines in medieval and early modern Europe – connecting climate and society, Wiley Interdisciplin. Rev.: Clim. Change, 15, e859, https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1002/wcc.859, 2024.

Pfister, C. and Wanner, H.: Climate and Society in Europe: The Last Thousand Years, Bern: Haupt Verlag, 2021.

Slavin, P.: Climate and famines: A historical reassessment, Wiley Interdisciplin. Rev.: Clim. Change, 7, 433–447, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.395, 2016.

Wanner, H., Pfister, C., and Neukom, R.: The variable European Little Ice Age, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 287, 107 531, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107531, 2022.

White, S., Brooke, J., and Pfister, C.: Climate, Weather, agriculture, and food, in: The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History, edited by White, S., Pfister, C., and Mauelshagen, F., pp. 331–353, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 2018.

This is a very interesting paper on a specific pluvial event and its consequences on society. I appreciate that it is not only climatologically state-ot-the-art, but also sketches all the relevant historical developments that are necessary to interpret this event, without going too far into climate determinism, like so many other studies. Nevertheless, I have some comments, which I would ask the authors to consider in their revised manuscript.  

General:

1770-1772 was a period of crisis in central Europe (see work By Dominik Collet). Although this might be arguably unrelated in a climatological context, and concerned a different region, it might nevertheless be relevant historically to extend the present case.

Daily scale: The authors speak about "torrential" rain, which cannot be assessed form monthly data. In general, I am wondering what could be done with daily data. These should be available from London and Paris (see Richard Cornes work), from the English Channel (wind from ships), and other Western European stations.

Paris precipitation is another interesting record, but is not included in the study. It is a bit peripheral, but could nevertheless be interesting.

At least in three instances in the  manuscript, the authors speak about 1678-1679. Perhaps this was a "find-replace" error. Or was it the 17th century and not the 18th century after all? I am confused.

The discussion is really nice and interesting, but at the same time the discussion should not present new results, which the authors do.

 

Minor:

Title: "17th century" -> "18th century"

Title: "a meteorological perspective" -> "a climatological perspective"

L. 14: "climate behaviour" -> "climate variability"

L. 154: Le Roy Ladurie

L. 210: Valler et al. 2020 -> 2022

L. 224: What did Murphy et al. find?

L. 342: Why 1944? ERA5 starts in 1940.

L. 423: What is meant with "root crops"? Potatoes? Then write potatoes. Or were other root crops important