Writing the Future

This study examines methods of predicting the future in medieval England as recorded in a variety of previously unpublished texts ranging from moon-based calculations (including zodiacal lunaries) and horoscopes, texts identifying times regarded as favourable or unfavourable for specific initiatives and enterprises, dreambooks, treatises derived from geomancy, to so-called "books of fate" which exploit the tradition of sortes, and miscellaneous items on prognostic phenomena such as weather and birthdates. The choice of topics about which enlightenment was sought proves to be remarkably consistent, the product of both Latin traditions and local cultural conditions. The book provides a counterpart to, and extension of, Lázló Chardonnens's monograph, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics, 900-1100 : Study and Texts (2007).