Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookich Chaucer refers, which I here quote from the edition of 1482, as described in my note to l. 119 of The Compleint of Mars (see vol. i. p. 500); viz. 'Unumquodque istorum signorum diuiditur in 30 partes equales, que gradus vocantur. Et gradus diuiditur in 60 minuta; et minutum in 60 secunda; et secundum in 60 tertia. Similiterque sequuntur quarta, scilicet et quinta, ascendendo usque ad infinita'; Alchabitii Differentia Prima. These minute subdivisions were never used; it was a mere affectation of accuracy, the like of which was never attained. § 10. 5. _in Arabiens_, amongst the Arabians. But he goes on to speak only of the Roman names of the months. Yet I may observe that in MS. Ii. 3. 3, at fol. 97, the Arabian, Syrian, and Egyptian names of the months are given as well as the Roman. § 16. 12. _& every minut 60 secoundes_; i.e. every minute contains 60 seconds. The sentence, in fact, merely comes to this. 'Every degree of the border contains four minutes (_of time_), and every minute (of time) contains sixty seconds (of time).' This is consistent and intelligible. Mr. Brae proposes to read '_four_ seconds'; this would mean that 'every degree of the border contains four minutes (of time), and every minute (_of the border_) contains four seconds (of time).' Both statements are true; but, in the latter case, Chaucer should have repeated the words 'of the bordure.' However this may be, the proposed emendation lacks authority, although the reprint of Speght changed 'lx' into 'fourtie,' which comes near to 'four.' But the reprint of Speght is of no value at all. See Mr. Brae's preface, p. 4, for the defence of his proposed emendation, which is entirely needless. § 17. 6. _Ptholome._ The St. John's MS. has _ptolomeys almagest_. '_Almagest_, a name given by the Arabs to the [Greek: megalê syntaxis], or _great collection_, the celebrated work of Ptolemy, the astronomer of Alexandria [floruit A.D. 140-160]. It was translated into Arabic about the year A.D. 827, under the patronage of the Caliph Al Mamun, by the Jew Alhazen ben Joseph, and the Christian Sergius. The word is the Arabic article _al_ prefixed to the Greek _megistus_, "greatest," a name probably derived from the title of the work itself, or, as we may judge from the superlative adjective, partly from the estimation in which it was held.'--English Cyclopædia; Arts and Sciences, i. 223. The Almagest 'was in thirteen books. Ptolemy wrote also four books of judicial astrology. He was an Egyptian astrologist, and flourished under Marcus Antoninus. He is mentioned in the Sompnour's Tale [D 2289], and the Wif of Bathes Prologue, ll. 182, 324.'--Warton, Hist. E. P. ii. 356, ed. 1871. The word _almagest_ occurs in the Milleres Tale, near the beginning (A 3208), and twice in the Wif of Bathes Prologue (D 183, 325). Chaucer says the obliquity of the ecliptic, according to Ptolemy, was 23° 50'. The _exact_ value, according to Ptolemy, was 23° 51' 20"; _Almagest_, lib. i. c. 13. But Chaucer did not care about the odd degree, and gives it nearly enough. See note to ii. 25. 19. 8. _tropos_, a turning; Chaucer gives it the sense of _agaynward_, i.e. in a returning direction. 14. The equinoctial was supposed to revolve, because it was the 'girdle' of the _primum mobile_, and turned with it. See note below to l. 28. 14, 15. 'As I have shewed thee in the solid sphere.' This is interesting, as shewing that Chaucer had already given his son some lessons on the motions of the heavenly bodies, before writing this treatise. 27. _angulus._ We should rather have expected the word _spera_ or _sphera_; cf. 'the sper solide' above, l. 15. 28. 'And observe, that this first moving (_primus motus_) is so called from the first movable (_primum mobile_) of the eighth sphere, which moving or motion is from East to West,' &c. There is an _apparent_ confusion in this, because the _primum mobile_ was the _ninth_ sphere (see Plate V, fig. 10); but it may be called the movable of the eighth, as _giving motion to it_. An attempt was made to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies by imagining the earth to be in the centre, surrounded by a series of concentric spheres, or rather shells, like the coats of an onion. Of these the seven innermost, all revolving with different velocities, each carried with it a planet. Beyond these was an eighth sphere, which was at first supposed to be divided into two parts, the inner part being the _firmamentum_, and the outer part the _primum mobile_; hence the _primum mobile_ might have been called 'the first moving of the eighth sphere,' as accounting for the more important part of the motion of the said sphere. It is simpler, however, to make these distinct, in which case the eighth sphere is _firmamentum_ or _sphæra stellarum fixarum_, which was supposed to have a very slow motion from West to East round the poles of the _zodiac_ to account for the precession of the equinoxes, whilst the ninth sphere, or _primum mobile_, whirled round from East to West once in 24 hours, carrying all the inner spheres with it, by which means the ancients accounted for the diurnal revolution. This ninth sphere had for its poles the north and south poles of the heavens, and its 'girdle' (or great circle equidistant from the poles) was the equator itself. Hence the equator is here called the 'girdle of the first moving.' As the planetary spheres revolved _in an opposite direction_, thus accounting for the _forward_ motion of the sun and planets in the ecliptic or near it, the _primum mobile_ was considered to revolve in a _backward_ or _unnatural_ direction, and hence Chaucer's apostrophe to it (Man of Lawes Tale, B 295):-- 'O firste moevyng cruel firmament, With thy diurnal sweigh that crowdest ay And hurlest all from Est til Occident, That naturelly wolde holde another way.' That is--'O thou _primum mobile_, thou cruel firmament, that with thy diurnal revolution (or revolution once in 24 hours round the axis of the equator) continually forcest along and whirlest all the celestial bodies from East to West, which _naturally_ would wish to follow the course of the sun in the zodiac from West to East.' This is well illustrated by a sidenote in the Ellesmere MS. to the passage in question, to this effect:--'Vnde Ptholomeus, libro i. cap. 8. Primi motus celi duo sunt, quorum vnus est qui mouet totum semper ab Oriente in Occidentem vno modo super orbes, &c. Item aliter vero motus est qui mouet orbem stellarum currencium contra motum primum, videlicet, ab Occidente in Orientum super alios duos polos[72].' That is, the two chief motions are that of the _primum mobile_, which carries everything round from East to West, and that of the fixed stars, which is a slow motion from West to East round the axis of the zodiac, to account for precession. This exactly explains the well-known passage in the Frankeleines Tale (C. T., F 1280):-- 'And by his eighte spere in his werking, He knew ful wel how fer Alnath was shove F |