Ancient and pre-Renaissance Contributors to Meteorology (through 1300s AD)

Below are checklists of Ancient and pre-Renaissance Contributors to Meteorology on postal items (stamps, souvenir sheets, aerogrammes, postal cards, etc.) and numismatic items (banknotes and coins). Catalog numbers, years of issue, and notes on the items featured are given when available. If readers know of additional information or images, please contact the authors using the e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.

For (both chronological and alphabetical) lists of contributors to meteorology return to the Meteorologist Index.

See also the following categories of Contributors to Meteorology:

• Precursor Contributors to Meteorology (Renaissance [~1400 AD] through World War I)
• Modern Contributors to Meteorology (post World War I)

The following persons are presented in chronological order. See the bottom of this page for footnotes that are common to all of the tables below.

Noah (2928? - 1979? BC)

Noah is the earliest historical character who can be linked in some way to meteorology. He obeyed God's command to build the Ark in order to save himself and his family and many animals from a devastating flood. In modern terms, he received a weather forecast, believed it and acted upon that information. Then after the flood, God promised Noah that never again would there be such a flood, and a rainbow appeared as a sign of that promise.

Yu, Da (King Da Yu) (ca 2000 BC)

Da Yu was a famous king of China who became popular with his people because he had some success in his project to control the floods of the Yellow River. Large floods have continued to take place on the Yellow and other Chinese rivers through to modern times, due to occasional long periods of heavy rains. Da Yu was the first known person to attempt to mitigate the disastrous effects of such weather situations.

Hesiod (8th century BC)

Hesiod was a Greek writer whose poem Works and Days was a sort of farmers' almanac in verse form. In it, he associated astronomical events with certain weather events. For example, he said that "when the Pleiades plunge into the misty sea to escape Orion's rude strength, then truly gales of all kinds rage" (this occurs at the end of October or the beginning of November), and that "fifty days after the solstice…the season of wearisome heat is come to an end". Such observations could be considered one of the earliest forms of climatological study. Works and Days is at the beginning of a tradition of Greek and Roman works, often in the form of calendars, that related astronomical phenomena to the weather.

Thales of Miletus (624? - 546? BC)

Thales was one of the seven Sages of ancient Greece, and the first of the Greek philosophers. He is considered the founder of Greek (and therefore European) philosophy and science, and made a number of discoveries in geometry, astronomy and physics. His scientific writings include one entitled Meteorology. Unfortunately, none of his original texts have survived, but they are known through commentaries from a number of sources, including Apollodorus, Suidas, Callimachus, Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle.

One anecdote about Thales relates to his response to detractors who claimed that his wisdom was of little practical use. Using his knowledge of meteorology to forecast a bumper crop of olives, he cornered the market for olive presses, charged exorbitant rates for their rental, and, having become wealthy in less than a year, then sold the presses and continued with his life as a philosopher.

Heraclitus (535? - 475? BC)

Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher who emphasized the idea of the conflict of opposites, such as day and night, hot and cold, winter and summer, and life and death. When sick with the dropsy, he went to town and asked the doctors in a riddle if they could make a drought out of his rainy weather (here again, the play of opposites, in a meteorological sense). In addition, Heraclitus said that "everything flows" (panta rhei) … wind, water, life. These things are similar in that they are all dynamic. Who knows, perhaps his observations of the weather gave him this idea. Just as the winds and the waters are ever-changing, ever-flowing, so is life.

Democritus of Abdera (460? - 370? BC)

Democritus was a Greek natural philosopher who did studies of various natural phenomena, for which he became well-known. There is some evidence that he predicted changes in the weather, and that he used this ability to convince people that he could predict other future events.

Hippocrates (460? - 377? BC)

Hippocrates was a Greek natural philosopher who is considered to be the "Father of Medicine". His treatise Airs, Waters and Places is the earliest known work to include a discussion of weather. In it, he wrote that:

"Whoever wishes to investigate medicine properly should proceed by first considering the seasons of the year and what effects each of them produces, for they are not all alike, but differ much among themselves as regards their influence. Next, one should study the winds, the heat and cold, especially values which are common to all countries, and then those which are peculiar to each locality. Similarly, when someone arrives in a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation as regards the prevailing winds and the rising of the Sun; for its influence is not the same if it faces north or south, or if it faces the rising or the setting Sun".

More generally, Hippocrates wrote about common diseases that occur in particular locations, seasons, winds and air. Galen, Maimonides and the medieval Islamic scholars al Razi and Avicenna continued this tradition.

Eudoxus (408? - 355? BC)

Eudoxus was a Greek natural philosopher who wrote books and lectured on theology, astronomy and meteorology.

Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)

In about 340 BC the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote Meteorologica, a treatise on natural philosophy. This work represented the sum of knowledge of the time about natural science, including weather and climate (despite the title it also touched on astronomy, geology and geography). At that time, anything that fell from the sky (including rain and snow) and anything in the sky (including clouds) was called a meteor, from the Greek word meteoros, meaning 'high in the sky'. From meteoros comes our term meteorology.

In Meteorologica, Aristotle considered four "contraries" (hot, cold, moist and dry) and four "elements" (fire, air, water and earth) and used them to explain weather phenomena such as winds, clouds, rain, snow, hail, dew, lightning, halos and rainbows. In particular, he named and characterized 10 winds, based on their directions (Timosthenes of Rhodes would later add two more winds to make the complete set of 12, which were then depicted on the Tower of the Winds in Athens). Arisotle was unaware of the scientific method in which experiments would be conducted to prove or disprove his conclusions. We now know that his explanations were generally incorrect. Meteorologica, to modern eyes, is a work of intuitive natural philosophy rather than science. Nevertheless, it is important as the first known work that attempts to treat comprehensively a wide variety of meteorological topics.

Several years after the writing of Meteorologica, Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, compiled a book on weather forecasting called The Book of Signs. This book presented ways to foretell the weather through various weather-related indicators, such as a ring around the moon (which is often followed by rain). The work of Aristotle, buttressed by that of Theophrastus, had such authority that it remained the dominant influence in the study of weather and weather forecasting for nearly 2000 years.

Theophrastus of Lesbos (372? - 287? BC)

Theophrastus was a pupil of Aristotle. He was the first natural philosopher to take a systematic approach to the study of botany, and has been referred to as the father of taxonomy. He was aware of the influence of various factors such as soil and climate on the growth of plants.

Theophrastus was interested in all aspects of natural science. After Aristotle wrote his book Meteorologica, Theophrastus in turn wrote a book on weather forecasting called The Book of Signs. It included a large number of empirical rules relating certain conditions to the expected weather. For example, a ring around the moon was an indicator of possible rain. The work of Aristotle and Theophrastus in meteorology had such authority that it remained the dominant influence in the study of weather and weather forecasting for nearly 2000 years.

Archimedes (287? - 212? BC)

Archimedes was a Greek scientist who studied (among many other things) buoyancy and the hydrostatic principle, both of which are important concepts in meteorology. Archimedes' principle states that any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid is acted upon by an upward force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body. If the displaced weight of fluid is greater than the weight of the body, then the body is forced upward. This is the situation in which an air parcel in the atmosphere rises if it is warmer than the surrounding atmosphere. In this situation, the parcel is said to have positive buoyancy. Positive buoyancy is one necessary condition in the formation of convective clouds (cumulus, cumulus congestus and cumulonimbus).

Bing Li (3rd century BC)

In 250 BC, Bing Li was the governor of Shu (today the province of Sichuan). China was known as a land of droughts and floods, and the Yellow River in particular was known as the "father of floods", so that water management and flood control were critical issues. Bing Li worked to mitigate the effects of the droughts and floods that were a neverending part of the Chinese climate. In this, he was carrying on the tradition established by King Da Yu some 1800 years earlier.

Li's main accomplishment was the building of the first dam at a place called Dujiangyan. The dam was part of a project to divert the flow of the Minjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze. The diverted water was directed into a series of spillways and channels that could be opened to irrigate fields in times of drought, and closed in times of flooding. Li had three stone figures representing gods of flood control in the form of men placed in the fields as gauges. If their feet were visible, then it was considered that drought conditions prevailed, and the gates were opened to let in water. If their shoulders were submerged, floodwaters had risen too high and the gates were closed.

Hipparchus of Alexandria (190? - 120? BC)

Hipparchus was the greatest of the Greek astronomers. He produced an astrometeorological calendar of a traditional type dating back to Hesiod, which related expected weather conditions to astronomical events such as the risings and settings of stars and constellations. Unfortunately, Hipparchus' calendar is now lost.

Writings by Ptolemy are the source of most of our knowledge about Hipparchus. In particular, Ptolemy suggests in his Phases of the Fixed Stars and Collection of Weather Signs that Hipparchus was one of his sources.

Virgil (Publius Virgil Maro) (70 - 19 BC)

Virgil was a Roman poet who delighted in nature, but also sought to understand it through natural philosophy (the science of the time). He included weather signs in a handbook of animal husbandry. His work Georgics consisted of some 2000 lines of poetry on agriculture and weather. Here is an excerpt:

Strabo (64? BC - 23? AD)

Strabo was a Greek geographer and historian. His work Geography, completed just before his death, was an attempt to bring together all known geographical knowledge, and covered all the countries and peoples known to the Romans and the Greeks at that time. It includes an early description of the weather in the British Isles:

"Their weather is more rainy than snowy; and on the days of clear sky fog prevails so long a time that throughout a whole day the sun is to be seen for only three or four hours round about midday". From this description, some would say that not much has changed in the British weather during the last 2000 years!

Strabo was also interested in astronomy and studied celestial cartography, and so is shown holding the celestial globe in Raphael's painting The School of Athens.

Ptolemy (90? - 168? AD)

Ptolemy was a Greek mathematician, geographer, astronomer and astrologer. In his work Phases of the Fixed Stars and Collection of Weather Signs, he described techniques to forecast the weather according to astronomical events. This work was clearly part of the Greek tradition of astrometeorological calendars relating astronomical phenomena to the weather. It introduced some innovations to the tradition, however. For example, it emphasized first and second magnitude stars rather than the constellations.

Phases of the Fixed Stars and Collection of Weather Signs is also important because it is a source of information about earlier authorities in the astrometeorological calendar tradition, including Hipparchus. The tradition in fact dates back as far as Hesiod in the 8th century BC.

Galen (130? - 200? AD)

Galen was a Greek physician. For one of his treatments, bloodletting, he believed that the amount of blood to let depended not only on the patient's age, constitution and location, but also on the season and the weather. In general, Galen thought that living bodies are composed of an unequal mixture of hot, cold, wet and dry - the "contraries" of Aristotle. He believed that the mixture could become "ill-balanced", and that these imbalances could have various effects on living bodies, including sickness. Galen wrote a commentary on Hippocrates' Airs, Waters and Places. He believed, as did Hippocrates, that climatic and environmental effects were one cause of diseases.

Isidore of Sevilla (Saint Isidorus Hispalensis) (560? - 636)

Isidorus was a Spanish bishop, historian and author. In his work De Natura Rerum (On the Nature of Things), he wrote about astronomy, cosmology and meteorology. In the chapters on meteorology, he wrote about thunder, clouds, rainbows and wind. "Corruption of the air" (pestilence) was also discussed.

al Jahiz (al Hayawan) (776? - 869?)

Al Jahiz was an early Arab writer, zoologist and philosopher. In his work Kitab al Hayawan (The Book of Animals), he introduced the idea that the climate and environmental factors were important in the behaviour and evolution of animals. Goethe would later say that al Jahiz was "a Darwinian before Darwin".

al Kindi, Yaqub Ibn Ishaq (800? - 873?)

Al Kindi was an Arab scholar who wrote hundreds of books, most relating to the science of the time. Several of his works relate to meteorology, optics and the reflection of light. Two of his books can even be considered as early treatments of air pollution: A Treatise on the Incenses that Treat the Atmosphere against Epidemics, and A Treatise on the Drugs Which Cure from Annoying Odours. Al Kindi was perhaps the leading exponent of Arabic meteorology, which was essentially Aristotlean, though he did work to simplify the complicated assumptions made by Aristotle centuries earlier in his treatment of meteorology.

al Razi, Zakariya (Rhazes) (860? - 925?)

Al Razi was a Persian-born Moslem physician. Following the tradition that originated with Hippocrates and Galen, he wrote in his al-Hawi fi al-Tibb that well-balanced and clean air are one essential prerequisite for good health: polluted air would cause diseases in men. Avicenna in his work al-Qanun fi al-Tibb had much the same idea. One day, al Razi was asked by the Caliph to choose a site for the proposed Adudi Hospital in Baghdad. To find the answer, he sent out several of his students to hang pieces of fresh meat in the different quarters of the city. The next day, the site at which the meat showed the least tendency to putrefaction was chosen to build the hospital.

al Farabi, Abu al Nasr (870? - 950?)

Al Farabi was an Arab philosopher and scientist. He wrote such rich commentaries on Aristotle's physics, meteorology and logic, in addition to a large number of books on subjects of his own original contribution, that he came to be known as the "Second Teacher" (Aristotle being the first). Some of al Farabi's work paved the way for the later work of Avicenna.

al Hazen (al Haitham) (Abu Ali al Hasan ibn al Haitam) (965 - 1040)

Al Hazen was an Arab scientist who discussed the density of the atmosphere, and correctly explained the refraction of light in the atmosphere. From his studies of refraction he determined that the atmosphere has a definite height, which he calculated to be about 50 km, and also that twilight is caused by refraction of solar radiation from beneath the horizon. For his pioneering work in these areas, he became known as the "Father of Optics".

al Biruni, Abu al Rayhan (973 - 1048)

Al Biruni was an Arab scholar and scientist. His Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology was in fact a primer of 11th century science. In what he called 'natural' astrology, he was concerned with meteorology, earthquakes, floods and all the other "vicissitudes and disasters" of nature.

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (980 - 1037)

Avicenna was an Arab physician, philosopher and natural scientist. His written works include his Encyclopaedia of Philosophy and Natural Sciences, in which he devotes six chapters to meteorology:

1. Clouds and rain;
2. Causes of rainbows;
3. Features associated with sun reflection on clouds, and rainbows;
4. Winds;
5. Thunder, lightning, comets and meteorites;
6. Catastrophic events that affect the surface of the Earth.

Avicenna made repeated observations of rainbows, but was unable to produce a satisfactory explanation of the rainbow colours.

As a physician, Avicenna followed the school of thought originated by Hippocrates, and extended by Galen and al Razi regarding the relationship of good air to health and diseases. In Avicenna's work al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, he presented some guidelines on how to identify good air: "Air is deemed fresh when it is free from pollution with smoke and (water) vapour. It should be really free and open and not enclosed by walls or undercover. If however the outside air is polluted, indoors should be preferred. The best type of air is that which is pure, clean and free from vapour from ponds, ditches, bamboo fields, cabbages and the dense overgrowth of trees, such as yew-trees, walnuts and figs. It is also essential that air be free from pollution with foul gases. Good air should be open to fresh breezes and it should come from plains and high mountains. It should not be confined to pits and depressions where it warms up quickly by the rising sun and cools down immediately after sunset. Air which is surrounded by recently-painted or plastered walls is not fresh. Air is not healthy if it produces choking or discomfort".

Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) (1135 - 1204)

Maimonides was a Jewish writer who took a particular interest in questions of public health. He followed in the tradition of Hippocrates, Galen, al Razi and Avicenna. Like them, he believed that climate along with environmental and geographical factors influence diseases, and stressed that physicians should carefully study the climate of certain locations in order to better treat patients and maintain their health. Maimonides recommended the best possible place for the people to live, as follows: "If there is no choice in this matter, for we have grown up in the cities and have become accustomed to them, you should at least select from the cities one of open horizons, especially toward the north and the east, high in the hills or the mountains, and sparse in trees and waters. If you have no choice and cannot emigrate from the city, endeavour at least to dwell on the outskirts ith the city, facing north and east".

In the area of public health, Maimonides recommended fresh air, clean water, and a healthy diet. These were not new ideas, but he was one of the first to place these principles in the context of particular diseases such as asthma.

Magnus, St. Albertus (1193? - 1280)

Magnus was a Dominican scientist and philosopher. He has been called the "Doctor Universalis" in recognition of his vast learning. His writings on the natural sciences include physics, meteorology, geology, physiology, and plant and animal life. He was one of the primary transmitters of Greek philosophy, and in particular commented on and taught the texts of Aristotle in Paris through the translations of Averroes.

Magnus was the first to propose the idea that each drop of falling rain had the form of a small sphere, and that this form meant that the rainbow was produced by light interacting with each raindrop. However, he thought that the colours were produced somehow within the curtain of drops, by the unknown effects of some kind of layering.

Khan, Kublai (1215 - 1294)

Kublai Khan was a Mongol leader who according to Marco Polo maintained some 5000 court astrologers, whose duties included the hazardous task of weather prediction. Why so many? Guessing wrong, he explained, could lead to "early retirement".

Aquinas, St. Thomas (1225 - 1274)

Aquinas was a philosopher and theologian from the Kingdom of Naples. In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas wrote about the diabolical origin of storms: "Rains and winds, and whatsoever occurs by local impulse alone, can be caused by demon It is a dogma of faith that the demons can produce wind, storms, and a rain of fire from heaven". Aquinas also wrote that bells, "provided they have been duly consecrated and baptised, are the foremost means of frustrating the atmospheric mischiefs of the devil, for the tones of the consecrated metal repel the demons and avert storm and lightning".

Footnotes common to all of the tables above:

^*Scott catalog number, unless prefixed with Mi or BL for Michel; KM = Krause and Mishler coin catalog number; P = Pick banknote catalog number; Y = Yoeman coin catalog number.

^**FDC = first day cover; SS# = souvenir sheet, MS# = miniature sheet, where # = number of stamps in sheet, and the numbers in parentheses are the catalog numbers of the stamps in the sheet.

^***The tables include either explicit or implicit birth and death anniversaries if they are indicated by the postal item. In the "Notes on Content" column:

• An explicit anniversary (not in parentheses) is included for a postal item that specifically indicates either the anniversary in question (e.g. "200th anniversary of birth") or the first and last years that determine the anniversary span (e.g. "1804 - 2004").
• An implicit anniversary is presented in parentheses if the year of issue for the postal item is a mulltiple of 100, or 50, or 25 of the number of years from the person's birth or death. The birth and death years may or may not appear on the stamp itself. For example, a stamp issued in 2007 commemorating a person who lived from 1840 to 1907 will be noted by the implicit anniversary phrase "(100th anniv. death)" in the absence of any explicit anniversary mention.

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