Seeking for signs of the future was a basic component of the pre-modern European mindset. The great variety of signs that are reviewed in the set of articles present commentaries on the time of their creation, whereas signs of the future display an ambiguous character.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Figures and Tables -- Introduction: Signs of the Future / Klaus Herbers and Hans-Christian Lehner -- Part 1 Signs and Dreams -- 1 Dreams, Visions, and Politics in Carolingian Europe / Klaus Herbers -- 2 Dum illum utero gestaret : The premonitory Dreams of Saints’ Mothers in Latin Hagiography / Patrick Henriet -- 3 Sepe verum somniant, qui presunt populis : The Dubious Veracity of Dreams / Albert Schirrmeister -- Part 2 Signs and Nature -- 4 The Emblematic Birth of a Monster in the High Middle Ages / Hans-Christian Lehner -- 5 Strange Events and Shaky Ground: On Earthquakes, Matthew Paris and ‘Solid Facts’ / Manuel Kamenzin -- 6 Between Astrological Divination, Local Knowledge and Political Intentions: Prognostics and “Epignostics” Related to Natural Disasters in the Middle Ages / Christian Rohr -- Part 3 Practices and Experts -- 7 Analogy at Work in Western Medieval Divination / Stefano Rapisarda -- 8 Hohe Prälaten der römischen Kurie beim Wahrsager ( XIII. Jahrhundert) / Agostino Paravicini Bagliani -- 9 Signs from the Afterlife: Consulting the Dead about the Future in Medieval Times / Matthias Heiduk -- 10 Alternative Losentscheidungsverfahren oder imitationes sortium in Byzanz / Michael Grünbart -- 11 Al-Ashraf ˁUmar’s Tabṣira: Chapter xxxiv: Rainbows, Shooting Stars, and Haloes as Signs of the Future / Petra G. Schmidl.

A great number of historical examples show how desperate people sought to obtain a glimpse of the future or explain certain incidents retrospectively through signs that had occurred in advance. In that sense, signs are always considered a portent of future events. In different societies, and at different times, the written or unwritten rules regarding their interpretation varied, although there was perhaps a common understanding of these processes. This present volume collates essays from specialists in the field of prognostication in the European Middle Ages. Contributors are Klaus Herbers, Wolfram Brandes, Zhao Lu, Rolf Scheuermann, Thomas Krümpel, Bernardo Bertholin Kerr, Gaelle Bosseman, Julia Eva Wannenmacher (†), Matthias Kaup, Vincent Gossaert, Jürgen Gebhardt, Matthias Gebauer, Richard Landes.

Description based on print version record.