Cover Band 22 von "Das Mittelalter – Beihefte" mit dem Titel "Fake News im Mittelalter? Untertitel: Zur kulturellen Aushandlung von Falschheit in politischen, religiösen und literarischen Diskursen"

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Oschema, Klaus: Fake News über das Morgen von gestern? Kontroversen über die Astrologie im späten Mittelalter, in Bubert, Marcel and Doering, Pia Claudia (Eds.): Fake News im Mittelalter? Zur kulturellen Aushandlung von Falschheit in politischen, religiösen und literarischen Diskursen, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2026 (Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte, Volume 22), p. 95–119. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1552.c24223

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1552
ISBN 978-3-96822-204-2 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-205-9 (Hardcover)

Published

03/12/2026

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Authors

Klaus Oschema

Fake News über das Morgen von gestern?

Kontroversen über die Astrologie im späten Mittelalter

Abstract This paper focuses on the example of late medi­eval controversies about astrology in order to ask whether the concept of ‘Fake News’ can be made fertile for medieval studies. On the basis of selected texts from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it analyses the argumentative strategies of proponents of astrology and their adversar­ies. A particular focus lies on the late French royal court during the reign of Charles V, when Nicole Oresme repeat­edly published texts against the influence of astrology. In his vernacular ‘Livre de divinacions’, Oresme mobilized not only scientific, logical, and theological arguments, thereby characterising astrology as an illegitimate and ineffective means to produce knowledge about the future: in addition, he used ad personam arguments that served to denounce (unidentified) astrologers as frauds. In the broader context of this volume, this example demonstrates, how the accusa­tion to produce wrong ‘truths’ could be used by opponents of astrology in order to delegitimise their adversaries.

Keywords astrology; fake news; Nicole Oresme; France