The “Chaucerian” Astrolabe in the British Museum: A Reassessment of Its Dating and Ownership (2019)
An undated medieval Latin astrolabe in the British Museum has many of the design features shown in manuscripts of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Treatise on the Astrolabe and is thus one of a group of astrolabes often described as “Chaucerian.” Although traditionally dated to the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries, it has recently been suggested that it is a later copy made by using the Treatise illustrations as a pattern. The close examination of the astrolabe in this article shows that the original dating is correct. It also produces the hypothesis that it was made for Bishop Henry Beaufort, one of John of Gaunt’s extended family who was educated as a part the group which included Chaucer’s son Thomas.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Eagleton, Catherine;
(2007)
“Chaucer's Own Astrolabe”: Text, Image and Object
(/isis/citation/CBB000772344/)
Book
Chaucer, Geoffrey;
Eisner, Sigmund;
(2002)
A Treatise on the Astrolabe
(/isis/citation/CBB000301499/)
Article
Knox-Johnston, Robin;
(2013)
Practical Assessment of the Accuracy of the Astrolabe
(/isis/citation/CBB001421461/)
Article
Bennett, Jim;
Strano, Giorgio;
(2014)
The So-Called “Chaucer Astrolabe” from the Koelliker Collection, Milan: An Account of the Instrument and Its Place in the Tradition of Chaucer-Type Astrolabes
(/isis/citation/CBB001450117/)
Article
Hehmeyer, Ingrid;
(2010)
The Challenge of Authenticating Scientific Objects in Museum Collections: Exposing the Forgery of a Moroccan Astrolabe Allegedly Dated 1845 CE
(/isis/citation/CBB001023786/)
Article
Falk, Seb;
(2014)
The Scholar as Craftsman: Derek De Solla Price and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Instrument
(/isis/citation/CBB001420004/)
Article
Johannes Thomann;
(2017)
Astrolabes as Eclipse Computers: Four Early Arabic Texts on Construction and Use of the Ṣafīḥa Kusūfiyya
(/isis/citation/CBB303857614/)
Article
John Davis;
(2019)
A Medieval English Astrolabe Now in Innsbruck, Linked to the Lancastrian Court and with a Chaucer Connection
(/isis/citation/CBB689938550/)
Book
Josefina Rodríguez Arribas;
Charles Burnett;
Silke Ackermann;
Ryan Szpiech;
(2019)
Astrolabes in Medieval Cultures
(/isis/citation/CBB340222573/)
Article
Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas;
Charles Burnett;
Silke Ackermann;
(2017)
Astrolabes in Medieval Cultures
(/isis/citation/CBB085146919/)
Book
King, David A.;
(2011)
Astrolabes from Medieval Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001252994/)
Article
Günther Oestmann;
(2017)
Changing the Angle of Vision: Astrolabe Dials on Astronomical Clocks
(/isis/citation/CBB022779084/)
Article
David A. King;
(2017)
European Astrolabes to ca. 1500: An Ordered List
(/isis/citation/CBB690825171/)
Article
Silke Ackermann;
(2017)
Introduction Hic Sunt Dracones—Astrolabe Research Revisited
(/isis/citation/CBB409584472/)
Article
Flora Vafea;
(2017)
From the Celestial Globe to the Astrolabe Transferring Celestial Motion onto the Plane of the Astrolabe
(/isis/citation/CBB861859693/)
Book
Borrelli, Arianna;
(2008)
Aspects of the Astrolabe: “Architectonica Ratio” in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB000953090/)
Article
Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas;
(2017)
The Astrolabe Finger Ring of Bonetus de Latis: Study, Latin Text, and English Translation with Commentary
(/isis/citation/CBB144751273/)
Article
Laura Fernández Fernández;
(2017)
Astrolabes on Parchment: The Astrolabes Depicted in Alfonso X’s Libro del saber de astrologia and Their Relationship to Contemporary Instruments
(/isis/citation/CBB857784780/)
Book
Marseille, Raymond de;
Alverny, Marie-Thérèse d';
Burnett, Charles;
Poulle, Emmanuel;
(2009)
Opera omnia. Tome I, Traité de l'astrolabe, [suivi de] Liber cursuum planetarum
(/isis/citation/CBB001252578/)
Article
Casulleras, Josep;
(2008-2009)
Mathematical Astrology in the Medieval Islamic West
(/isis/citation/CBB001024039/)
Be the first to comment!