Treatise on the Astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

By Geoffrey Chaucer

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Treatise on the Astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Chaucer includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781788774819

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340s-1400) was an English poet and civil servant. Born in London to a family of wealthy vintners, Chaucer became a page to a noblewoman as a teenager, gaining access to the court of King Edward III. He served in the English army at the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, was captured during the siege of Rheims, and returned to England after a sizeable ransom was paid by the king. Afterward, he travelled throughout Europe, married Philippa de Roet—with whom he had four children—and eventually settled in London to study law. In 1367, Chaucer joined the royal court of Edward III, serving in a variety of roles while also writing his earliest known poem, The Book of the Duchess. In 1373, following a military expedition in Picardy, he visited Genoa and Florence where he is believed to have met both Petrarch and Boccaccio, who introduced him to the Italian poetry that would heavily influence the form and content of his own work. Chaucer was appointed to the role of comptroller of customs for the port of London in 1374, a position he would hold for the next twelve years. He is believed to have written The Canterbury Tales—his most important work and an early masterpiece of English literature—in the early 1380s, was appointed clerk of the king’s works in 1389, and, in the last decade of his life, lived on an annual pension granted him by King Richard II. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and is recognized today as the father of English literature.

Book preview

The Complete Works of

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

VOLUME 11 OF 16

Treatise on the Astrolabe

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2012

Version 1

COPYRIGHT

‘Treatise on the Astrolabe’

Geoffrey Chaucer: Parts Edition (in 16 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78877 481 9

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

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www.delphiclassics.com

Geoffrey Chaucer: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 11 of the Delphi Classics edition of Geoffrey Chaucer in 16 Parts. It features the unabridged text of Treatise on the Astrolabe from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Geoffrey Chaucer or the Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

IN 16 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Poetry

1, The Romaunt of the Rose

2, The Book of the Duchess

3, The House of Fame

4, Anelida and Arcite

5, Parlement of Foules

6, Troilus and Criseyde - Original and Modernised Text

7, The Legend of Good Women

8, The Canterbury Tales - Original and Modernised Text

9, Minor Poems

The Non-Fiction

10, Boece

11, Treatise on the Astrolabe

The Criticism

12, The Criticism

The Biographies

13, Chaucer and His England by G. G. Coulton

14, Chaucer by Sir Adolphus William Ward

15, Chaucer’s Official Life by James Root Hulbert

16, Brief Life of Geoffrey Chaucer by D. Laing Purves

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Treatise on the Astrolabe

This medieval essay on the astrolabe – an instrument used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers to identifty the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars — written by Chaucer for his son Lewis and is accepted by many scholars as being authentic. According to the introduction, the work was to have comprised five parts, including a description of the astrolabe, a basic course in using the instrument, explanations of tables of longitudes latitudes and declinations, a theory of the motion of the celestial bodies and culminating with an introduction to the broader field of ‘astrologie’. However, Chaucer only completed two parts, finishing with the course of instruction in the astrolabe’s use. Interestingly, the Treatise is considered to be the oldest work in English describing a complex scientific instrument and the text is admired for its clarity in explaining difficult concepts.

The astrolabe of Jean Fusoris, Paris, 1400

A vector image of the astrolabe described by Chaucer

CONTENTS

PART I

PART II

Inner Temple, London, where Chaucer was likely to have studied law in the 1360s

PART I

   Lyte Lowys my sone, I aperceyve wel by certeyne

   evydences thyn abilite to lerne sciences

   touching nombres and proporciouns; and as wel

   considre I thy besy praier in special to lerne the

   tretys of the Astrelabie. Than for as moche as a

   philosofre saith, "he wrappith him in his frend,

   that condescendith to the rightfulle praiers of his

   frend," therfore have I yeven the a suffisant Astrolabie

   as for oure orizonte, compowned

10 after the latitude of Oxenforde; upon

   which, by mediacioun of this litel tretys, I

   purpose to teche the a certein nombre of conclusions

   aperteynyng to the same instrument. I

   seie a certein of conclusions, for thre causes. The

   first cause is this: truste wel that alle the conclusions

   that han be founde, or ellys possibly

   might be founde in so noble an instrument as is

   an Astrelabie ben unknowe parfitly to eny mortal

   man in this regioun, as I