Time and the Astrolabe in the Canterbury Tales (2002)(en)(320s)

369 Pages·2002·19.178 MB·English

by  Marijane Osborn

TIME AND THE ASTROLABE
IN THE
CANTERBURY TAL E5
Series for Science and Culture
EDITOR, SERIES FOR
SCIENCE AND CULTURE
Robert Markley, West Virginia University
ADVISORY BOARD
Sander G~lmanC, ornell University
Donna Haraway, University of California, Santa Cruz
N. Katherine Hayles, University of CaLfornia, Los Angeles
Bruno Latour, Ecole Nationale SupCrieure des Mines and University of
California, San Diego
Richard Lewontin, Harvard University
Michael Morrison, University of Oklahoma
Mark Poster, University of California, Irvine
G. S. Rousseau, University of Aberdeen
Donald Worster, University of Kansas
TIME AND THE
ASTROLABE I N THE
CANTERBURY TALE5
Marijane Osborn
University of Oklahoma Press : Norman
Other Books by Marijane Osborn
(with Stella Longland) Rune Games (London, 1982)
Beom& A Erse Transhtion with Treasuresfrom the Ancient North (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1983)
Beowu& A Cuide to Study (Los Angeles, 1986)
(with Randolph Swearer and Ray Oliver) Beom& A Likeness (New Haven, 1990)
(with Gillian Overing) Landscape of Desire: Partial Stories of the Medieval Scandinavian World
(Minneapolis, 1994)
Romancing the Goddess: Three Middle English Romances about Women (Urbana, Ill., 1998)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Osborn, Marijane.
Time and the astrolabe in the Canterbury tales / Marijane Osborn.
p. cm. - (Series for science and culture ; v. 5)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN o-8061-3403-8 (hardcover :a lk. paper)
I. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400. Canterbury tales. 2. Time in literature. 3. Christian
pilgrims and pilgrimages in literature. 4. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 140-Views on time.
5. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 140-Technique. 6. Tales, MecLeval-History and criticism.
7. Astrolabes in literature. 8. Rhetoric, Medieval. 1. Title. 11. Series: Series for
science and culture ; v. 5.
PR1875.T55083 2002
821'.14c21 2001055697
Time and the Astrolabe in The Canterbury Tales is Volume 5 of the Series for Science and
Culture.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Com-
mittee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources,
Inc.
Coppght O 2002 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of
the University. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the U.S.A.
As Chaucer matured, as he heed bself progressively from the rhetorically com-
plex and artificial styles of his predecessors, he allowed himself greater scope to
experiment with astronomical styles, It is a measure of the mastery he had over them
that they never seriously interfered with the growing naturahsm of hsp oetry. . .. [The
astronomical passages] tend to be hghly specific, as we have amply shown, and to
that extent they are a facet of naturdsm rather than a denial of it.
J. D. North, Chaucer's Universe
For David
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Series Editor's Foreword
Acknowledgments and Credits
Introduction
Part T h gB earings
1:
Chapter Chaucer's Sky
I:
Chapter 2: The Steed of Brass and Chaucer's Astrolabe
Chapter 3: Using the Astrolabe on the Road to Canterbury
Chapter 4: Mercury the Sly and the "Bradshaw Shift"
Part 2: Applications
Chapter 5: The Amphitheater in The Knight5 Tale
Chapter 6: The Spheres and Pagan Prayer in The Knight5 Tab
Chapter 7: Cosmic Retribution in The Miller5 Tale
Part 3: Implications
Chapter 8: Chaucer's Attitude toward Prophecy and
Planetary Influences
Chapter 9: The "Artificial Dayy'o f Pilgrimage
Chapter ro: Libra and the Moon: Some Final Speculations
CONTENTS
Appendix: A Practice Astrolabe
Glossary of Basic Astronomical and Navigational Terms
Notes
Works Cited
Index
I LLUSTRATIONS
1.1. The Rete of an Astrolabe Set in the Main Plate 15
1.2. Lady Astronomy Instructing Ptolemy in the
Use of the Astrolabe 17
1.3. Measuring the Hours 20
1.4. The Basic Model 21
1.5. The Basic Model with the Celestial Equator and the Ecliptic 22
1.6. Aries, Taurus, and the Pleiades 25
1.7. The Precession of the Equinoxes 28
2.1. ATurbanned Knight upon a Steed of Brass 38
2.2. The Parts of the Astrolabe 41
2.3. The "Hors" (Skeat) 43
2.4. The Constellation Pegasus 45
2.5. The Great Square as Indicator of the First Point of Aries 46
2.6. The Constellation Aquila 51
3.1. The April Half-Course of Aries the Ram 59
3.2. The Back of an Astrolabe 60
3.3. The Arc of the Artificial Day for Lat 52ON on April 18
(Julian Calendar) 66
3.4. A Climate Plate 69
3.5. The Approximate Positions of the Sun and Its Exaltation
in Be Squire? Tab 73