Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination

Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023

Edited by Alessandro Palazzo Edited by Francesca Bonini Edited by Amalia Cerrito

Book cover: Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination

Extent: 584 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Medieval Studies

Series: Rencontres de Philosophie Médiévale

Series volume number: 31

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(March 2026)

ISBN: 9782503619811

156 x 234 inches

Price: $107.00

In stock


This volume explores
a range of theories and debates on foreknowledge (future contingents,
prophecy, eschatology, scientific prognostication, and divination) across
various disciplinary fields and medieval traditions.



This volume offers a
comprehensive examination of medieval conceptions of foreknowledge—understood
both as divine prescience and as the human capacity to anticipate future
events—across a range of intellectual traditions. It investigates key themes
such as future contingents, prophetic discourse (both divinely inspired and
natural), divinatory dreams, eschatology, scientific prognostication (in
astrology and medicine), and conjectural disciplines such as geomancy,
physiognomy, meteorology, and magic. Through historical reconstructions and
doctrinal analyses, the contributions illuminate the theoretical frameworks
and distinctive positions advanced by medieval authors within diverse
cultural and scholarly contexts. Building on an extensive body of prior
research, the volume documents the multiplicity of medieval strategies for
engaging with the future, thereby challenging the historiographical
assumption that the notion of an open and indeterminate future emerged only
in the Modern period.

  • Edited by Alessandro Palazzo
  • Edited by Francesca Bonini
  • Edited by Amalia Cerrito