The Astrolabe – to follow the stars and the sun!

September 30, 2018 Comments Off

With only a day to go to the start of Literary Footprints 2018, Tina Baxter returns to tell us the story of what is considered the oldest detailed description of a scientific instrument in English. You can discover more on Tina’s Chaucer – His Life & Times in the City walk, dates and booking details on Tina’s walks page.

Find yourself spoiled for choice? Check out our great value Literary Footprints season ticket which allows you free access to over 60 London literary-themed walks throughout the month of October for only £49!

There was a Skipper hailing from far west ….

As his skill in reckoning his tides,

Currents and many another risk besides,

Moons, harbours, pilots …

That none from Hull to Carthage was his match.

The Prologue – Shipman – Canterbury Tales

Chaucer possibly refers to the buccaneering merchant John Hawley of Dartmouth who he may have met during a visit to the port in November 1373. Chaucer was there to deal with another ‘Genoese affair’ – a Genoese ship had been arrested. Chaucer had been to Genoa on King’s business in 1372 so was the best person to negotiate and maintain good relations between the ports although he did not actually become Comptroller of Customs until 1374.

What would have been utmost in sailor’s minds in this pre-compass age was a fear of being lost at sea.

By the end 1400s it was common to use mathematical tables (solar and lunar tables) and astrolabes (used for measuring angles of the stars as well as the sun). Mariners could now sail across the sea with greater confidence and no doubt greater profits.

Chaucer wrote a treatise for his son on how to use an astrolabe – The Treatise is considered the oldest work in English describing a complex scientific instrument and is admired for its clarity in explaining difficult concepts. Little Lewes was only ten years old, and his father writing in English, accepted that some of the conclusions might, ‘ben to harde to thy tendir age of ten yeer to conceyve’.

My research drew me to the Canterbury Astrolabe Quadrant believed to date as early as 1388, probably lost by a travelling scholar who may have lost it in Canterbury while on pilgrimage to that City.

So let us join the Literary Fest pilgrimage, come and join me on a journey of discovery, but we will not need a compass or an astrolabe for jaunt in the footsteps of Chaucer! Let us go and discover the roads he walked, the people he met, his day job, and the site where he conceived and began the Canterbury Tales.