Signs of Nature, and Then Some

As we work on the digitisation of the marvellously rich Alonso de Chaves’ Quatri Partitu (ca. 1537), I was struck by the brief last treatise of Book Two, “On the Natural Signs to Know the Weather Changes” (fols. 37r–44v). The treatise has a very clear structure: there are ten significants or indicators in nature, which through their changes tell us about five variables (“diez señales de cinco diferencias”)—variables which are of course of particular interest to mariners.

The ten signs are stars, sun, moon, clouds, fog, rainbow, lightning and thunder, fowl and fish, land animals, inanimate land and water bodies. The five variables are calm, wind, rain, tempest, and cold. This means that we have subheadings for combinations like: “Signs of tempest given by the rainbow”, and “Signs of calm given by lightnings and thunder” and so on.

On one hand, rather objectively, the detail of the observation of nature is delightful and often lyrical or comical: “When the stars appear to move or play and they are dancing, it signifies winds coming on the following day from the region where they are most clearly visible,” “When the owls hoot by sunset, it signifies rains,” or “When fleas bite more than usual, it signifies imminent rain.” Another example, under “Inanimate bodies”, is this, “When leatherwear and belts are rougher and harder than usual, it signifies storms.” Chaves is quick to note, as a conclusion to this section, that “of these signs, some are general and some particular. Not one of them is so general that it applies all over the world, and not one is so particular that it applies to one single place or people.” He also notes that they are affected by the phases of the moon and by the seasons, and that some of them combine in certain ways.

On the other hand, thinking of the contrast with our modern meteorology and its impressive feats, one cannot shake off a sort of je ne sais quoi, a feeling of nostalgia perhaps, of a more direct involvement with nature and its every little sign—a love relation really. Or perhaps it is a feeling of simple heuristic wonder at the possibilities still awaiting meteorology in its development. After all, meteorology as an ongoing endeavour is always hot on the tracks of the butterfly effect, and it probably will at some point start paying attention to those butterfly wings! [Juan Acevedo]