A Treatise on the Astrolabe (Volume 6)

by Geoffrey Chaucer, Sigmund Eisner (Editor)

A Treatise the Astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer is the work of an avid amateur astronomer who happened also to be England’s greatest medieval poet. A user of the astrolabe can plot the movement of the stars, tell time, and calculate numerous other results. Chaucer translated and revised a standard Latin treatment of the astrolabe. His treatise, which is generally regarded as one of the first technical manuals in English and a model of how technical manuals should be written. Not since 1872 has a free-standing edition of A Treatise the Astrolabe been published. Thanks to the expertise of its editor, Sigmund Eisner, who supplies sixty-eight illustrations, this Variorum edition provides a more detailed exposition than previously available. Eisner’s extensive labors result in the first complete record of textual variants found in the thirty-two surviving manuscripts of the work and in all the major printed text published between 1532 and 1987. This landmark edition also presents a thorough digest of all published commentary on Chaucer’s treatise. Amplified by sixty-eight illustrations, this variorum edition of Chaucer’s A Treatise on the Astrolabe provides a more detailed exposition of the treatise than has ever before been available.

Genres: Geoffrey Chaucer, Medieval

400 pages, cloth

First published May 1, 1969

About the author

Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343 - 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.
Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage" (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. As scholar Bruce Holsinger has argued, charting Chaucer's life and work comes with many challenges related to the "difficult disjunction between the written record of his public and private life and the literary corpus he left behind". His recorded works and his life show many personas that are "ironic, mysterious, elusive [or] cagey" in nature, ever-changing with new discoveries.

Reviews

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

"11. To knowe the quantite of houres equales, that is to seyn the houres of the clokke, ben departid by 15 degrees alredy in the bordure of thin Astrolaby, as wel by night was by day, generaly for evere. What nedith more declaracioun?

Wherfore whan the list to knowe hou many houres of the clokke ben passed, or eny part of eny of these houres that ben passed, or ellis how many houres or parties of houres ben to come fro such a tyme to such a tyme by day or by night, know the degre of thy sonne, and ley thy label on it. Turne thy ryet aboute joyntly with thy label, and with the poynt of it rekne in the bordure fro the sonne arise unto that same place there thou desirist, by day as by night. This conclusioun wol I declare in the laste chapitre of the 4 partie of this tretys so openly that ther shal lakke no word that nedith to the declaracioun."

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Canterbury tales , bien sur, is THE Engliah literature Fondamental. This book differs and shows that Chaucer had a wide ranging mind who could write clear prose as well as brilliant poetry . Written for his son Lowys he dedicates " for Latyn canst thou hit but small". Thanks to Lowy's being a poor Latinest we have the first work in English of a scientific instrument . It is ver touching .

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this!
Not only is it so interesting to learn about an astrolabe, but realizing how much astronomy was widely understood. Chaucer is writing to his ten year old son. Not having my own astrolabe to hold, many of the specific directions were lost to me, but the comprehensive care Chaucer uses and the love he has for his son are evident.

Glad I read this!

[Alex McVeigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good practice for reading middle English, hard to follow as I don't have an astrolabe in front of me.