Abstract

Investigating medieval wind diagrams represents something of an exploratory enterprise. Historians of science have rarely looked into conceptions of the physical world during the period extending from Isidore of Seville to the late eleventh century. Instead they have limited their research almost exclusively to the related topics of astronomy and reckonings of time, leaving unexamined medieval speculations on the composition of the world and on such natural phenomena as winds. Two assumptions have led to this neglect. The first is a belief that Roman and, a fortiori, early-medieval physics was extremely rudimentary and therefore unworthy of attention; the second is a belief that, with the acceptance of Christianity, the physical world no longer held interest as a subject of study and was invested solely with spiritual meaning. Until recently, these widely accepted assumptions remained unchallenged