Walter William Skeat

“ It hence appears that, whilst persisting in using 'longitudes' and reckoning along the zodiac, the ancients were obliged, in practice, to refer the degrees of longitude to the equator. The modern method of recognizing this necessity, and registering right ascensions as of more importance than longitudes, is a great improvement. The ancients were restrained from it by their unnecessary reverence for the zodiac. Cf. Ptolemy's Almagest, lib. i. c. xiii.
§ 29. Chaucer omits to say that the experiment should be made when the sun is very nearly on the meridian. ”

“ What the star F is, is of no consequence. The numbers used in other copies are different, and much less satisfactory. That the star A is the Pole-star or some star near the pole in this 'conclusion' is rendered probable also by the wording of the next 'conclusion'; which extends the working of it to the case of any other star, provided it be a star that never sets.
§ 25. 19. When Chaucer says that the latitude of Oxford is 'certain minutes less,' he probably means no more than that the latitude of Oxford was 51 degrees and 50 minutes, as in the text. ”

“ Lastly, the words that is to seyn, in the 6 degree, &c., are an explanation of the vaguer expression in the same signe. The repetition of the words that is to seyn, &c. (ll. 12 and 14) , is intended to draw attention to the necessity of keeping both legs of the compass in the same degree of longitude (A on the zodiac, and F to the north of it) .
57. Possibly Chaucer left the sentence incomplete. The words 'thou shalt do well enough' may easily have been added by another hand to bring the sentence to an apparent, though not wholly satisfactory, conclusion. ”

“ Minutes were seldom reckoned otherwise than by tens; 'a few minutes less than 50' (say 47) is a refinement to which the ancients seldom attained. Hence the amount of 10 minutes is vaguely spoken of in l. 31 as 'odde Minutes.' Minutes were clearly not much considered. In the present case, we are assisted by Chaucer's express statement in sect. 22. l. 6. The true latitude of Oxford is between 51° 45′ and 51° 46′. ”

“ The ancients also used the co-ordinates of longitude and latitude of a star, the longitude being reckoned along the ecliptic, and the latitude along great circles through the poles of the ecliptic; as appears from the second Table in the same MS.
§ 19. 6. equinoxial. This, as explained in the footnote, should be 'ecliptik'; but I can find no MS. authority for the alteration, though the correction is practically made in l. 13.
§ 22. 13. place. Late copies and old editions, planet; absurdly. Latitudes of several places are given in old Latin MSS. They are frequently incorrect. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And a planet in his hows is lyke a kynge in his hall, And in the high trone of his glorie. A planet in his exaltacioun is lyke a kynge when he is crowned. A planet in his triplicite is like a kynge in honour, Amonge his sencible people. A planet in his terme is As a mann amonges his kynnesmenn And fryndis. Facies gyvith to a planet that thyng the which rowme gyvith to a maistre. ”

“ Del maggior corpo al ciel ch'é pura luce.'
Dante, like Chaucer, makes the eighth sphere that of fixed stars, and the ninth the primum mobile or swiftest heaven (ciel velocissimo) ; Parad, xxvii. 99.↑ Here follows a table, shewing that, in Aries, the value of Saturn is 5, of Jupiter 5, &c.; with the values of the planets in all the other signs. The value 5, of Saturn, is obtained by adding a triplicite (value 3) to a terme (value 2) , these being the 'witnesses' of Saturne in Aries; and so on throughout.↑ So on p. 12 of another tract (D) in the same MS., we find—
⁠'Aries calidum & sucum ”

“ For by þat same altitude shal thou se that same sterre, & non othir / for þere ne wolle non othir altitude accorde þerto.'
30. Alhabor; i.e. Sirius or the Dog-star, as is evident from the fact of its being represented by a dog's head on the Astrolabe; see also the table of stars marked on the Astrolabe (in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. li. 3. 3, fol. 70, back) , which gives the declination 15° S, the latitude 39° S, and places the star in Cancer. ”

“ Hence the 32 points of the compass.
§ 33. 5. We should probably insert or south after the word north. Such an insertion is authorised by MSS. B. and C.
§ 34. 3. That 'upon the mones syde' means nearly in the same azimuth as the moon, is apparent from l. 11 below, where Chaucer says that some treatises make no exception even if the star is not quite in the same azimuth. This was certainly a rough mode of observation.
§ 35. 9. right side, East side. See i. 6. 1 (p. 179) .
18. episicle, epicycle. To account for the planetary motions, epicycles were invented. ”

“ Ta., F 1275, 6, the note upon which in the glossary to Urry's Chaucer may be found also in Tyrwhitt's Glossary, s.v. Expans; but it is worth while to repeat it here. 'In this and the following verses, the Poet describes the Alphonsine Astronomical Tables by the several parts of them, wherein some technical terms occur, which were used by the old astronomers, and continued by the compilers of those tables. Collect years are certain sums of years, with the motions of the heavenly bodies corresponding to them, as of 20, 40, 60, &c., disposed into tables ”

“ John's College, Cambridge, contains (besides Chaucer's 'Astrolabe') a Latin treatise entitled 'De septem climatibus expositio.' We find mention of the 'climates' also in MS. Camb. Ii. 3. 3, fol. 33 b, where a diagram appears representing a hemisphere, divided by parallels of latitude into 9 climates or belts, which, beginning from the equator, are as follows. 1. Inhabitabile propter Calorem. 2. Primum clima dia Meroes. 3. Secundum clima dya cienes. 4. Tertium clima di' alexandrios. 5. Quartum clima dia rodos. 6. Quintum clima dia romes. 7. Sextum clima dia boristenes. 8. ”

“ The '32 parts' used by 'shipmen' are due to the continual halving of angles. Thus, the four cardinal points have points half-way between them, making eight points; between which, we can insert eight more, making sixteen ”