Medieval Meteorology in Context

The research for this Fellowship will form the major part of the first systematic study of medieval meteorology and its place in English medieval culture. Medieval meteorology has received very little previous attention, partly because many of the key texts, such as the relevant Anglo-Saxon 'prognostics', have been considered as part of the history of magic. For instance, the first systematic attempt at collection of these texts was in Cockayne's 'Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England' (Rolls Series, 3 vols, 1864-6). Their identification as a group or genre of texts, and their presentation as very much the product of 'monastic superstition' have both persisted until relatively recently; and even the studies of Chardonnens (2007) and Liuzza (2011), which take the texts far more seriously, give relatively little consideration to the meteorological aspects. The latter remain overshadowed by the more prominent fields of medicine and divination; and a further problem is that there has been a tendency to assume that weather-prediction would fall foul of the Church's ban on auguries and divinations.

As a new approach to this problem, I shall explore the evidence that forecasting the weather in medieval England was not an activity undertaken by either superstitious monks or illicit practitioners of divination. Instead, it rested upon natural-philosophical concepts (both inherited from antiquity and recently translated from Arabic) and theological analyses of the structure of the created universe. My research will cover the period from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, when exploration of the rules governing the operations of the universe benefited from expanding expertise in fields such as mathematics and astronomy. Cosmology, meteorology and astrology were intricately related, as the links between the motions of the planets, aerial transmission of planetary influences, and the patterns of times, tides and seasons were investigated. I have no intention of repeating existing work on the reception of Arabic science and mathematics. Rather, my focus is on the much less recognised field of weather-forecasting, and how the concepts and techniques involved related to broader contemporary ideas on climate, air, atmosphere and the influence of the planets.

During the Fellowship I shall be concentrating on four key topics, in order to analyse the theory, practice and cultural context of meteorology in medieval England.

The first of these will be the analysis of the texts and manuscript contexts of Anglo-Saxon meteorological prognostics. I shall make use of the texts established in recent editions, whilst also studying the manuscripts themselves for unpublished texts and for evidence on the questions of audience and usage.

The second key topic is the comparison of the meteorological concepts found in the Anglo-Saxon collections with those made available by both classical and Arabic works.

In order to establish the level of knowledge of this range of texts in twelfth-century England, I shall conduct case studies of key manuscripts with meteorological elements. Their full contents will be studied, together with their palaeographical and codicological details; and this will make possible a modelling of meteorological knowledge in Bury, Canterbury, Durham and Lincoln in particular. I shall draw upon, and take further, existing work on scientific study in Worcester and Hereford and its influence elsewhere.

Finally, I shall focus on the work of Robert Grosseteste and his pupil, Roger Bacon, who contributed much to the development of scientific and meteorological study at Lincoln and Oxford in the thirteenth century. Surviving English copies of Grosseteste's short work on astrometeorology, in particular, will be analysed, and a further layer thus added to my mapping of meteorological knowledge.

The project will reach the following groups of beneficiaries beyond the academic sphere:

Most specifically:-
participants in the Royal Meteorological Society's Amateur Observer Symposium, to be held at the University of Reading in 2013 (which includes non-academics);
visitors to the Reading Weather, Art and Music Festival in 2014;
visitors to a small exhibition to be developed via a UROP placement at the Museum of English Rural Life in summer and autumn 2014.

More broadly:
The research will provide a valuable resource for practitioners in the heritage industry, and public historians of science, interested in going beyond, or actually challenging, existing stereotypes as to the medieval Church's attitude to 'science'.

Through contact with the History group of the Royal Meteorological Society, and the Work in Progress Group of the Meteorology Department at Reading University, the research will also benefit current meteorologists with an interest in the formation and early history of their subject. Discussion with pracising meteorologists, both at the University of Reading and during the 2012 Weather, Art and Music Festival (at which I ran a stand and a small experiment on Medieval Astrometeorology) showed that there is currently very little awareness that there was, or even could be, such a thing as medieval meteorology. My research is not intended to suggest that medieval meteorology rested upon any of the same scientific theories or paradigms as the modern practice. However, it will extend the existing history of meteorology considerably, as well as providing an analysis of the place of meteorology in medieval culture.

The research will contribute to national culture and national debate on the complex issue of the relationship between science and culture. It provides a strong argument, backed by evidence, that the medieval Church, notorious for its supposed opposition to scientific progress, was not hostile to meteorology, and was in fact very aware of the economic importance of weather forecasting. This will help to emphasise that the 'two cultures' division is not a necessary fact of European intellectual formation. The University of Reading's Research Communications Department will play an important role in the communication of these findings.

The demonstration that cutting-edge meteorological research is long-established in England will be of value for professional bodies in the field, especially those who offer public information on the history of meteorology. The findings will be especially timely, given current debates on weather, climate and the factors which bring about changes in long-term weather patterns.