Volcanic eruptions can inject large amounts of material into the atmosphere, which impacts climate and societies on regional to global scales. The Volcanic Impacts on Climate and Society (VICS) working group, part of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project, supports research focused on reconstructing the history of past volcanism, and its impact on the climate system and societies. This special issue provides authoritative statements on the state-of-the-art knowledge of historically and scientifically important eruptions from an interdisciplinary perspective and set an agenda for future research into links between volcanism, climate and society. These studies will provide updates on well-known events, as well as expanding the focus to include eruptions and time periods which have so far received less attention. Studies will integrate interdisciplinary evidence and explore the rich narrative circumstances and uncertainties unique to each event or period. As a collection, the special issue will highlight both the commonalities between eruptive events, as well as the variance in responses to different eruptions.