Thursday 11. 9. 2025 14:00
lecture | Centre for Medieval Studies, Reading Room, Jilská 1, Prague
Maximilian Schuh: Scientific Weather Forecasting in Late Medieval Oxford. Editing and Contextualising William Merle’s De prognosticatione aeris
Organized by the The Centre for Classical Studies, IP CAS, and The Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought, IP CAS
Dr. Maximilian Schuh (Feodor Lynen Fellow, Institute of Philosophy, CAS)
Abstract
This paper presents an editorial research project on De prognosticatione aeris by the Oxford scholar William Merle (†1347). Largely neglected by previous scholarship, this tract on weather prediction departs from traditional medieval astro-meteorological approaches by emphasising the systematic observation of natural phenomena. In doing so, Merle introduced an innovative approach to weather forecasting in the fourteenth century. The paper introduces the structure and content of the work, its embedding within the intellectual and institutional contexts of Oxford, and the significance of Merle’s ideas for the history of late medieval science.
