Osborn M. Time and the Astrolabe in the Canterbury Tales

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. – 2002. – 368 p. (Series for Science and Culture) This book is intended for those wishing to understand, in simple term, what Chaucer is doing with the references to celestial objects that he scatters throughout The Canterbury Tales, and what these have to do with the Tales as a whole The main purpose of Time and the astrolabe in The Canterbury Tales is to enable the reader to be included in that elite yet only moderately adept audience. This purpose may be broken down into three subsidary aims: to demystify the astrolabe by means of Chaucer's treatise, so that any careful reader can perform the first few operations on the device; to show how Chaucer uses the Arabic instrument to create secular time-related structures with certain individual Canterbury tales; and to examine various ways that these structures also enhance the frame tale itself, implicitly raising the philosophical level of the framing fiction without recourse to a philosophical flight of the kind that Geffrey the narrator found so uncomfortable in The House of Fame. The first set of chapters, Taking Bearings, shows how the astrolabe works, as Chaucer describes its functions to his ten-year-old son. As a preliminary step, Chapter I provides an introduction to the way Chaucer's sky functions, setting forth the principles of the simple astronomy required for navigation and orienteering to this day. The second set of chapters, Applications, takes the reader, by means of Chaucer's own words both in his Treatise on the Astrolabe and in the Tales, through the first three operations of the astrolabe. These operations are used to find the time of day, and thus they result in describing the "arc of day" that spans the pilgrimage. The third set of chapters, Implications first digresses to examine Chaucer's attitude toward astrology (a related subject though not the primary interest of this book), then demonstrates further operations of the astrolabe, finally arguing that the supposed astrological error of the exaltation of the Moon at the end of the journey is not the mistake that modern commentators have supposed it to be.Series Editor's Foreword.
Acknowledgments and Credits.Taking Bearings.
Chaucer's Sky.
The Steed of Brass and Chaucer's Astrolabe.
Using the Astrolabe on the Road to Canterbury.
Mercury the Sly and the "Bradshaw Shift".
Applications.
The Amphitheater in The Knight’s Tale.
The Spheres and Pagan Prayer in The Knight’s Tale.
Cosmic Retribution in The Miller’s Tale.
Implications.
Chaucer's Attitude toward Prophecy and.
Planetary Influences.
The Artificial Day of Pilgrimage.
Libra and the Moon: Some Final Speculations A Practice Astrolabe.
Glossary of Basic Astronomical and Navigational Terms.Works Cited.