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    The oldest known English-language technical manual on the use of a scientific instrument, it was produced by a man better-known in quite another field of literature. What is this treatise, who wrote it, and what, exactly, did one do with the instrument described?

    Question #58446. Asked by lanfranco. (Jul 21 05 4:05 PM)


    someothername

    		A treatise on the astrolabe by Chaucer.
    http://art-bin.com/art/oastro.html

    Jul 21 05, 5:14 PM
    someothername

    		The astrolabe was used for navigation by the stars before the sextant.

    Of al this world the large compas
    Hit wol not in myn armes tweyne -
    Whoso mochel wol embrace,
    Litel therof he shal distreyne.

    Jul 21 05, 5:25 PM
    lanfranco

    		Yay, som. Written around 1391, possibly for Chaucer's own, illegitimate, 10-year-old son (though there is some dispute about this), the "Treatise on the Astrolabe" owns as special a place in English literature as anything else Chaucer wrote.

    Incidentally, apropos of the question I posted last night, Abelard and Heloise named their only child "Astrolabe."

    http://astrolabe.vidmo.net/treatise.html

    Jul 21 05, 5:49 PM

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