Weather Forecasting: Traditions and Practices in the Medieval Western Christian World
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985955%3A_____%2F21%3A00542284" target="_blank" >RIV/67985955:_____/21:00542284 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110499773-037" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110499773-037</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110499773-037" target="_blank" >10.1515/9783110499773-037</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Weather Forecasting: Traditions and Practices in the Medieval Western Christian World
Original language description
The paper presents various ways that, according to medieval authors from the Western Christian world, could be used to predict the weather. Thanks to its vital importance for humankind, weather forecasting has always enjoyed a privileged position within future telling, although it has never reached the desired level of dependability. We can presume that the oral tradition mainly concerned generally-accepted weather signs deduced from natural observations (from clouds, fog, animal behavior, the appearance of plants, etc.). The majority of the written evidence from the medieval western Christian tradition relates to forecasts based on astrological principles and calculations, which are today labelled astrometeorology. However, judging from the number of extant texts, the most popular type of weather forecasting literature was “bare” lists of rules, a prominent position in the manuscripts was granted to texts regarding the long-term prediction of weather conditions and related phenomena based on the month in which thunder occurred and the day on which the January kalends fall. Various other medieval texts were composed as lists, including literary parapegmata recording the risings and settings of certain constellations during the year and their effect on the sublunary world. Rarely we find the divinatory forecasting methods: the study of marks (depressions, lines, discolorations, etc.) on various parts of the right shoulder-blade of a sheep, today called scapulimancy, or identifying the rainiest month of the year from the reaction of salt with moisture on the first night of January, while the names of all months were recited. The study focuses on written sources and documented techniques, on historical and social contexts of weather forecasting, as well as on medieval discussions about this topic.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
C - Chapter in a specialist book
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60101 - History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA19-03834S" target="_blank" >GA19-03834S: Historical development of meteorological theories and terminology in the Czech Lands</a><br>
Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2021
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Book/collection name
Prognostication in the Medieval World: A Handbook
ISBN
978-3-11-050120-9
Number of pages of the result
14
Pages from-to
651-664
Number of pages of the book
710
Publisher name
De Gruyter
Place of publication
Berlin
UT code for WoS chapter
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