IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V. /. {/ C/. (/j (/. 1.0 I.I 1.25 (3 '""= - IM 12,2 2,5 ^ m ^ Jif la III 2.0 U. 11.6 Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 A^ ^q\' •1>^ :\ \ ''f ff>i>ntffyff|F: \ THE ? ASTROLABES OF SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN AND > ■ I ' HI GEOFFEEY ClIAUOER BY HENRY SCADDING, D.D., AUTHOR OF " TORONTO OF OLD." A PAPER READ BEFORE THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE, TORONTO, DURING THE SESSION 1879-80, TORONTO : PRINTED Pif HUNTER, ROSE & CO., WELLINGTON ST. WEST. 1880. S2. ■i ■ASt^ THE ASTROLABES OF SAMUEL CHAMPLAliN AND GEOFFREY CHAUCER.* Readers of Canadian newspapers may have noticed a mention made, some time ago, of the finding of an old scientific instrument called by the French and Lower Canadian writers an Astrolabe, sup- posed to have been dropped by Samuel Chami)lain when passing up the Ottawa in 1613, en route, as he hoped, to the country of the Nipis- sings and the Salt Sea beyond. It was lighted on accidentally in 1807, during the cultivation of the soil on the line of a portage which used formerly to be traversed for the double purpose of making a short cut, and also of avoiding difficulties in the navigation in this part of the Ottawa River. The instrument, when discovered, had evidently lain long on the spot where it was found, being covered with several inches of soil formed of decayed vegetation, but its state of preservation was extraordinary. The relic itself is now in Toronto in the possession of R. S. Cassels, Esq., who obtained it directly from the settler who in 1867 ploughed it up in the rear half of lot No. 12, in the second range of the Township of Ross, in the County of Ren- frew, land at the time in a state of nature, whose only previous owner had been Capt. Overman, commander of a steamer on Muskrat lake. Previous to actually handling the object, and while judging only from a photograph taken of it and an engraving made from that pho. tograph, I had been inclined to doubt its identity with the astrolabe said to have been lost by Champlain in this neighbourhood in 1613. The aerugo tf 264 years must, I thought, have produced a greater ob- scurity in the lines and minute figures delineated on the surface of the brass ; and a certain apparent freshness in the look of the date *A paper read before the Canadian InHlitute, Toronto, during tlie iSession 1879-60. 1603, as given in the ^oio^.,^^^^^^ jToToh^pw": Lrti „, a. Jia "'- ''»!»=' "°'""*-r ,it.,o«t ,«e»tion. a gemune fi„t voy,«e to Kew F™"- ' »^' „„, „, ,he bagg-ge of any of „,d ..trolaW, l,ut it n,.ght bave ^ I _ ,^i„_ ,,„,, i«„d and tbe .aany pavt.ea that, »n,ce tl e "™» ° ,^,,„„_ t„ffl„, n,i»B,on.worK repassed along the Ottawa "><"^ °^J^ „f ,^, i„stnnnent itself, how Twar, intent A eareful -am-at.on <> ^^ .^|_ .^ .^ ^„,„ a :; „, s^on dissipated all snsp.con • The U . i o a very close, hard *--'"«■ f;^ i„„t aturospherio inllaence ary brass, co,n,,o«nded so '^°^Jl°^iii^i..e.t.My of contem- T^e date, 1003, ^"'"'l.eJ on the s^e o^ „^ The reeor.Ung porary workmanship wrth he rest o t^ ^^^ „; ^^ ^ a date withont the add.tron fj^^'^^l „,ay in son>e degree be ,Wch at first sight Ukew,se -^^^X^Veircumferenoe of the d« accounted for thus : the B^" ^ ^JJ^^^j, „„t stamped on. W^h denoting the degrees are al ""'-; ^^„^ f„ the maker to affi. punches in his hand rt would >» ^ ""P „ ^,, ,ame with h » name and -- "'':r<:::;;-ew« tbttCifty work»a„mightth,nk :rrrmte;:i.e^^t an instrument for taking .»«- Champlain certoinly had with h.m ^^ ^^„ ^,^ ^ Jes during hU »peJ;tion np *e OtUw.^^^^^ ,^^,^ ,he jou^ney^ shown that he V^ohM^ '"'^^Cl now to be seen i" P™t ••» ^-a Champlain kept a journal wh ch ^^^^^ ^^,„^,, ,„ 1870 . Works ■ edited and published at «»= ^^^ ^^^.^^ ^ J the Abbd Laverditoe, o ^aval Unm^ y^ ^^ ^^j, p„, ofthe ^verdi^re-s ^.00.^;^ ^ ^^ /I.tlrt^Ind Mr Marshall, of Buffalo, ioumal given oy Mr Busseli, o , ; ,, Astrolabe, fn their respective pamphlets on Champta ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ Champlain records that he ««">'^'l '^" * °„ „„ the 5th, the island the «rof June, 1613, the Baprdes d» O, ^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^, „t St C«.ix and the Portage ^''^o^on ' ^^^ ^^^^_^_ ^„^ du Fort he turned ofi westward -m *« ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ „j tU on what is now known as *» ^u^^r , ^ ,,,, June 6th and the whole of June 7th wer ^^.^ ^^^^^ ,^„g greatly troubled,' Champlam writes, i The Antrolabes of Champlain and Chancer myself loaded with threo arqunbuscs, as many paddles, my cloak {cftpote) and some small articles (bagatelles). I encouraged my men,' be continues, 'who were loadelain ond Cluincer. taken tho latitude corn-ctly tlioro, i'^TyO", (as the chances are, ho would Imve done), he would have detected the nuHtake which lie had made at Portasfo du Fort, and have altered his fissures, for otherwise he would have almurdly proved himself to have been travelling south instead of north. lljus then the matter stands. Tt appears probable, that while traversing the Muskrat l^ako Portage in 1G13, Champlain lost a scientific instrunuint called an astrolabe. In iSG7, at a point in the line of this portage, such an instrument, evit'.ently of (Jham[)lain's period, was found. We have no jiositive reason to adduv^e f»)r dis- believing that the article found is the article chat was lost. 11.ein,s, not irrationally, we allow ourselves tho pleasure of thinking that we have before us, really, a veritable and most iriterestinf relic of tho bold, brave, resolute founder of Quebec and of New France. It should be added that along with, or in close proximity to, the as- trolabe, some s,uu.\ copjier vessels or pans fitting into each other, were ploughed up, and tw -> small silver cups with a device, perhaps a crest, engraved upon then.. Although a diligent search was at once made for other articles in the locality, nothing else was found ; shewing that this was not a racfte or deposit of effects for temporary safe-keti^- ing, but a case of accidental lo.ss. The silver cups, of little intrinsic value, were sold sometime after the find to a passing peddler. Mr. Cassels took the trouble to trace the subsequent history of these cups, and learned that they had been melted down. As to the copper pans : when exhumed they were greatly decayed and quite useless ; they accordingly became mixed up with the * old metals ' of the settler's house, and were finally lost. A portion of one of them was remem- bered by the finder to have been nailed over a leaky spot in a log canoe. Also, it may Ite subjoined, that Parkman, in his * Pioneers of France in the New World,' pp. 346 7, whilst giving an account of Champlain's progress on the 6th and 7th of June, 1613, makes hira emerge on the expansion of the Ottawa, known as Lake Coulonge, and not at the ac- tual spot considerably to the west, namely the mouth of Muskrat River, the natural northern terminus of the portage. Again, as we read Parkman's account of the difficulties encountered in the portage here, we can feel no surprise at the unperceived loss, under the cir- cumstances, of such articles as those ploughed up in 1867, in the *T The Asfrohihea of Chtim plain and Chancer. he had ^uth irhvle >Ht a n the ilain's ,r dis- Ieiiv3, lat we of the the as- r, were a crest, !e made jhewing ie-ke*. ^ mtrinaic V. Mr. sse cups, er pans ; 9s; they settler's I remem- in a log of France araplain's ge on the at the ac- Muskrat ain, as we he portage er the cir- 67, in the Township of Rohh. Of ( "haraplain and his jmrty, Parknian writes in his graphic way : 'Their inarcli was througli a pine forest, A whirl- wind had swept it, and in the track of the tornado the trees lay up- torn, inverted, prostrate, and Hung in disordered heaps, houghs, roots and trunks mixed in wild confusion. Over, under, and through these masses the travellers made tlieir painful way ; then, througli the pit- falls and impediments of the living forest, till a sunny transparency in the screen of young lunage gladdened their eyes with the assurance that they had reached again the hanks of the open stream.' Lake Coulonge, where Parkman supposes ' the banks of the open stream ' to have been again reached, was in fact an important portion of the great bend avoided by leaving the Ottawa at Portage du Fort and pushing westward to Muskrat Lake and Muskrat River, by which route a short cut to the Upper Allur^ "*te liake was presented. I shall now describe more m.. itely, the instrument which has given rise to the present discussion. Lt is a thick bi-ass circular disc, al)Out five and a half inches in f'i.iuetei, finely jiarked oflFtowur.ls the outer edge into 3G0 degrees in the usual way, the degrees in each (jupxlrant numbered or an inner circle from one to ninety, f;tavting in each case from a cardinal point. For lightness, a considerable portion of the disc in each of its quarters is cut out ; or more probably the whole was originally cast in this peiforated conJiti'^n A moveable bsr furnished with a sight and pointe »• at each end, revolves on a pivot passing through the centre of the disc. A ring attached to the rim by a double hinge, enabled the observer, at his pleasure, either to susj^end the instrument for observation, or himself to hold it nj) ; when the hinges below the ring, allowing of a certain amount of motion in two directions, would enable him to get it into a position suitable for his purpose. At the point opjiosite to the ring is a small projection pierced through for the reception of a screw or tack, to temporarily fasten or steady the instrument when hung up by the ring on a stafll or post. Or it may have been for the suaf)en8ion of a weight to en, urs with greater certainty a vertical j)osition. Discernible on the outei' edge are slight remains of two other projections now broken otl", at equal distances to the righ* and left of the lower projection. These may represent feet, by means of which the instrument might occasionally be supported in an upright position on a level surface. Just above the perforated pr/>jection, the date 1G03 is stamped, precede ' and fol- 8 The Astrolabes of Champlain and Chaucer. II; ii lowed by a small cross. The year of Cham plain's first visit to Canada, was 160? On departing from Honfleur with his friend Pontgiav^, in that year, he may have provided himself with this instrument, then fresh from the manufacturer's hands. The weight of the whole apparatus is about three pounds. The method of taking an observation must have been somewhat thus : allowing the instrument to hang freely, the revolving bar would be directed towards the sun at noon in such a manner that a ray might pass through both the sights to the eye ; the sun's meridian altitude would thus be roughly ascertained, and the latitude of the place approximately deduced by estimation. With the circle divided only into degrees, and unprovided with any contrivance analogous to the modern Vernier, it is surprising that Champlain should have been as nearly correct as he generally is in his latitudes. The term ' astrolabe' as indicating simply an instrument for taking altitudes seems to have continued longer in \ise among the French savans than among the English. No English scientific man would, I think, at the first glance, designate the object which has been engaging our attention as an astrolabe. He would call it possibly a pocket as- tronomical circle, a portable mural, or a rude theodolite. But in the seventeenth century, among the French, the term seems to have famil- iarly presented itself, and the use of it appears to have been perpetu- ated among the French Canadians long after the time of Champlain. For ordinary {)urposes, the simple instrument probably continued to be employed in Canada and France long after Vernier's improvements. Thus in 1687, seventy-four years alter Champlain's first excursion up the Ottawa, we have the Baron Lahontan, when starting westward from Fort Niagara, under orders from the Governor-in-Chief, De Denonville, congratulating himself on having brought with him from Montreal, his * astrolabe,' just as a modern officer of a scientific turn of mind, would write of his aneroid or sextant. ' Je me suis heureuse- ment garni de mon astrolabe en partant de Montreal,' he says (Voy- ages i. 103.): ' avec lequel je pourrais prendre les hauteurs de ce lac (Frontenac or Ontario). 11 ne me sera moins utile dans mon voyage, qui sera de deux ans on environ, selon toutes les appareuces.' • Prendre le hauteur,' is also Champlain's phrase. Thus in his journal on the 4:th of June, 1613, after passing the Chaudi^re fall, he makes an entry in his old French thus : ' Je prins le hauteur du lieu et trouvay Hie Astrolabes of Cha7)iijlain and Ckau.cer. 45 degr^s, 38 minutes de latitude.' One may add, in passing, that Lahontan's astrolabe might have kept him from endorsing the extra- vagant notion, prevalent at that time, of the height of the falls of Nia- gara. To the French voyageurs, arriving in the first instance in low- canoes at the base of the ' mountain ' as their expression was, at what is now Lewiston or Queenston, and casting their eyes up to the then forest-crowned summit, the height to be surmounted appeared some thing stu{)endous. Then, after toiling with weary steps and slow, up the steep, and proceeding along the still continued, irregular slope, till at last the brink of the cataract was reached, they mentally added to- gether the ascents of the several stages, and roughly guessed the ■whole perfiendicular height attained since leaving the water-level at Queenston, to be something like seven or eight hundred feet. Hence the report became current that this was the height of the Falls of Nia- gai-a. With astrolabe in hand, Lahontan might have set the public right on this point. But he failed to do so. The iistrolabe employed by the primitive fathers and founders of Natural Philosophy was a more complicated instrument than that which we have thus far been contemi)lating. That of Hipparchus, who flourished a century and a Jiulf l»efore the Christian era, and that of Claudius i'tolemj', author ofthe famous ' Almagest,' some tive hundred years later, viz., A.I)., 139-161, is described as consisting of a set of con- centric circles, so arranged as to h-ive one in the plane of the ecliptic, another at right angles to it ; so that virtually the astrolabe of Hip- parchus and Ptolemy was what used to be figured in books on As- tronomy as an artnillary sphere, i.e. a hollow sjfhere with all the sur- face cut away, except the ecpiator, ecliptic and other circles, and fur- nished with a moveable tube or revolving rule, bearing sights. In the hands of Hipparchus and Ptolemy, and numerous other sincere students of natural science, their successors in later ages, the astrolabe was put to legitimat. and laudable uses: but it came at length to be a conspicuous and distinctive part of the paraphei'nalia of a set of impostois, who daring a long period turned the ignorance and weakness of their lellow-uHni into a source of gain. For example : in Victor Rydberg's recent book on ' Magic in the Middle Ages,' p, 108, we have some of the objects observert in the room of a magician thus set down : — ' On his w iting-desk lay a parchment in which he had commenced to write down the horoscope of the following year. Be- jp. M. 10 ihe Astrolahef^ of Champlain and Chaucer. side the desk was a celestial globe with figures, painted in various colours. In a window looking towards the south, hung an astrolabe, to whose alidade [moveable rule], a long telescope, of course without lenses, was attached.' In Herman Meri vale's • Orlando inRonceval- les,' p. 12, we have the * spirits of the air,' grotesquely represented as making use of material astrolabes, just as in the mediseval paintings we sometimes see angelic beings playing on violins. ' Know,' says the demon Astaroth to Malagigi, ' Know that all the circling air is dense With spirits, each his astrolabe in hand, Searching the hidden ways of Providence ; ' Where Merivale literally translated from his aiithority, Pulci ; ' Sappi che tutto quest aere fe dense Di spirti, ogn'un con astrolabio in mano.' Since personally handling the old instrument, which, with such plausibility, can be shown to have been once the property of Samuel Champlain, the first explorer of our back lakes, and the founder, as I have said, of Quebec, I have turned with a renewed interest to a treat- ise on the astrolabe, which I have for some time had in my library. It is contained in Thomas Speght's second edition of the whole works of Geoffrey Chaucer, * our ancient and learned English poet,' as he is styled on the title page. The vulurae is a folio, almost wholly in black letter, and its imprint is that of Adam Islip, London, 1602. Supposing that the incident narrated as occurring in 18G7, in the Township of Ross, in our Canadian County of Renfrew, may have excited amongst us some curiosity on the subject of astrolabes, I pro- ceed to give an account of the treatise of Chaucer, just referred to. Geoflfrey Chaucer, it is to be remembered, was a many-sided man. In him, as in Burke, Canning, the first Lord Lytton, and the Disraeli of to-day, fine perceptions, a powerful imagination, and rare literary faculty did not prove inconijiatible with the possession of strong practical good sense, and its application in departments of life of the most serious and varied kind. He was a man of business ; a man of affairs ; a trusted and most successful diplomatist, if not a states- man ; a traveller ; a linguist; a lover of science; a man of wide knowledge. He wrote his treatise on the astrolabe for the use of his The Astrolabes of Champlain and Chaucer. 11 son Louis, to accompany the gift made to the lad of an nstrument of that name ; in manuscript, of course, the printing press being a thing unknown in 1391. It is in English prose ; and Speght, the editor of the folio before me, prefixes to it the following note : ' This book written to his sonne in the yeare of our Lord 1391, and in the four- teenth of k. Eichard 2nd, standeth so good at this day, especially for the horizon of Oxford, as in the opinion of the learned, it cannot be amended. ' The general heading of the treatise is 'The Conclusions of the Astro- labie;' this, and not 'Astrolabe' being the form of the word used by Chauc'itf . By ' Conclusions ' he means Determinations or Problems ■ solved by the help of the instrument. The work is divided by Chaucer into five sections, or * parties,' as he calls them ; but only two of these seem to have survived, namely the first and second, which are to be seen in Speght. The remaining three have disappeared, or were never compiled. The first describes the form and parts of the astrolabe ; the second is taken up with a dis- cussion of the practical use of the instrument and the problems that may be worked out by it ; the third and fourth exhibited, or were to exhibit, tables of latitudes, longitudes, declinations, calculations of time, movements of the moon, etc. ; and the fifth spoke, or was to speak, of the theory of astrology, that is, the astronomy of the day, with tables of the ' dignities ' of tlie planets. (Some fragments of this part have perhaps become mixed up with the matter of the second part.) In the tables and computations of the third ' party,' Chaucer says he conformed to the calendars of ' the reverend clerks, Frere John Som, aiivl Frere N. Lenne,' Carmelite Friars, well-known conjoint authors of a treatise on the astrolabe, temp. Edward III. (Tn Latin forms their names appear as Nicholas de Lynne, i. e. of Lynn, in Norfolk, and Johannes Sombe.) Chaucer's astrolabe was a metal disc of some thickness, certainly resembling, in a general way, that which Champlain employed, only consisting of more * members,' as Chaucer speaks. He describes first the ring at the top * to putten on thy thombe on thy right honde in taking the height of thynges.' This ring, he says, * renneth in a maner of turet ; ' plays, that is, in a hinge-like way, so that it ' distroubletb not the instrument to hang( a after his right centure,' that is to say, rertically. The disc itself, he informs his son, is called * the moder 12 The Astrolabes of C'hamj^lain and Chaucer. ^mother] of thyn astrolabie.* It is thickest * by the brinkes ; ' the inner portion on one side is sunk and made thin, so as to receive a light circular plate made to fit into it, with a piece of moveable open •work over it, through which the plate below may be viewed. The sunken portion of the disc is called its * wombe.' The plate just men- tioned has a diagram upon it constnicted for the latitude or ' clymate' of the particular place where the instrument is going to be used, hence it is made so as to be easily removed : the one furnished for Chaucer's little Louis, was ' corapowned ' or calculated for Oxford. The lines and circles forming the diagram on the x-emovable ' clymate '-plate ai-e numerous, with many in*^ersections ; and the appearance thus pro- duced is curiously descvil)ed in the following terms: ' From the signet (the apparent pole of the heaven) there commen crooked strikes (curved strokes or lines) like to the claws of aloppe (the legs of a spider), or els like to the wex'ke of a womans calle (caul, or net for the hair), inkerving overthwart the almicanteras ; and these same strikes and divisions ben cleaped azimutes, and they dividen the oi'izonts on thine astrolabie in 24 divi-sions. And these azimutes serve to knowe the costes of the firmament, and the other conclusions, as for to knowe the signet of the sunne and of every sterre.' The circle of open work which is to be placed over the plate of the ' clymate ' is called the * rete,' the net ; as it consists of several thin strips or flattened wires, arranged somewhat after the fashion of the lines in a certain kind of fishing net, or * else,' Chaucer says, * after the webbe of a Joppe ' /. e. a spider's web. On each of the wires, forming the reet, which curve round or radiate from a quasi-pole, is set a mark which is to indicate the place of a certain conspicuous fixed star, and over these curving lines is placed towards the upper parts, a circular band which is ' devyded in twelve principall devisions that doperten the twelve signs,' hence the whole ' rete' is styled ' the Zodiacke,' and it is made moveable ; it may be shifted round on a centre in accordance with observations taken in the actual heavens. To admit of this move- ment, a ' pinne,' after the manner of an ' exiltre ' [axletree], passes through the centre of the disc. This pin is ingeniously made in such a way that its diameter could be slightly lessened or increased by lifting up or pressing down a small wedge called a ' horse,' allowing the rete to revolve, but at the same time keeping the clymate-plate below firmly in its place. By loosening the wedge, the clymate-plate Tlie Astrolabes of Champlaln and Chaucer. 13 could be taken out, when a change of plate was required. The pin passing through ^he disc was also the axis on which the radial index bearing the sights revolvHd on the flat or unexcavated side of the instru- ment. This radial index is called by Chaucer the Rule ; ' it hath ' he says * on everich end/ i e. each end, a square plate parted /. e. pierced through, with certain holes, some more and some lesse, to receyven the streems of the Sunne by day, and eke by mediation of thine eye, to know the altitude of the sterres by night.' Another name for the rule used by Chaucer is the alidatha, its appellation among the Arabs ; and one may observe in passing, that probably from alidatha has been derived, by a succession of changes, the word tJieodoUte. So the late Prof, de Morgan, of University College, London, held, who always spelt the word theodolete, though his practice h:is not been generally adopted. There are other Arabic terras in use in coimection with the astrolabe ; as for example, almicanteras, azimuths, almurie, to. say nothing of the names applied to many of the stars themselves, as- alnasir, markab, algomisi, alhabor, — curious reminiscences continuing to this day, of the source whence streamed the few rays of science- which cheered our European forefathers during the Dark Ages. 'As- trolabe ' itself is said to have passed into the European tongues through uater-lcdj,' the Arabic corruption of the Greek word to which we have now more nearly reverted. The side of the disc on which the alidatha or rule revolves is divided into a succession of concentric circles. The outermost is graduated in the usual way by quarter circles. The next is divided into twelve equal parts, each showing the name of one of the signs. The third has the names of the months arranged with relation to the signs, and giv- ing the number of days in each month. The next has tlie holidays in each month marked j and the last has the letters ABC, etc. , made to correspond with the names of the holidays. In the space near the centre are two scales or ladders, placed at right angles to each other, each with eleven rungs, for taking the heights of objects by means of their shadow ; one scale is for taking the height by the umbra versa ; the other by the umbra recta or extensa: these scales, the reader is told, serve for *ful many a subtill conclusion.' In addition to the rule, a long, thin needle or revolving index on the womb-side is spoken of/ .caching to the outermost graduated circle. ^^^s is the label. Also, there is an almurie, a point or tooth i)ro- 14 TJie Astrolabes of Champlain and Chaucer. jecting from Capricorn, serving ' of many a necessary conclusion in equacions of things.' After describing the several parts of the instrument, Chaucer pro- ceeds to enumerate the problems which may be solved by its use. He begins his list in these words, his grammar therein reminding one of William of Wykham's well-known ' Manners maketh man : ' ' Here beginneth,' he says, * the conclusions of thine Astrolabie.' It will not be necessary to give an account of them all. Ths headings of a few of them may suffice, as : * To know any time of the day by light of the sunne, and any time of the night by the sterres fixe, and eke to know by night or by day the degrees of the sign that ascendeth on the east horizon which is cleped commonly ascendent.' ' To know the very equation of the degrees of the sunne, if it so be that it fall be- tween two almicanteras.' * To know the spring of the dawning and the end of the evening, the which beene cleaped the two crepusculea' ■* To know with what degree of the Zodiake any sterre fix in thine As- trolabie ariseth upon the east orizont, although the orizont be in an- other signe.' * To know the declination of any degree in the Zo- diake, fro the equinoctiall cercle. ' ' To know which day is like to other in length throughout the yeere.' 'To prove the latitude of any place in a region by the prefi*e of the height of the pole artike in that same place.' * To know the signet for the arising of the sunne, this is to sayne, the party of the orizont in which the sunne ariseth.' ' To know sothly the longitude of the moone, or any planet that hath no latitude, from the time of the Ecliptike line.' * To know whether any planet be direct or retrograde,' &c. And after enumerating some thirty -eight or forty such conclu- sions or problems, and showing how each of them may be solved, Chaucer assures his son that these are only a portion of the conclu sions that may be worked out by aid of the astrolabe, for ' trust well, he says, 'that all the conclusions that may have been founden, or pos- sibly might be found, in so noble an instrument as is the astrolabye, ben unknown perfitly to any mortall man in this region as I suppose.' We may be 5ure that he had been long an adept in the use of the instru- ment, perhaps from the days of his youth, when at college. He narrates some of his experience with astrolabes that he had met with : he had discovered, he says, * there be some conclusions that will not in all thyngs perfourme her behests; ' ' her,' of course, is 'their,' and n f ■■ •• ., "T" The Astrolabes of CliamiTilain and Chaucer. 16 he means probably that the results promised by the contriver of the instrument did not in every case come out exactly on trial Chau- cer's accurate knowledge of the astronomy of his day, and of the in- genious explanations of phenomena offered by the Ptolemaic theories, are conspicuous throughout the Canterbury Tales ; in the Franklin's Tale, for example, the Man of Law's Tale, and the Nun's Priest's Tale. And I cannot but think that the well-known interior of the scholar's room at the beginning of the Miller's Tale is a reminiscence of his own chamber at Oxenforde in his younger days. I will trans- cribe the passage ; in it we shall meet with the astrolabe and with the expression ' conclusions ' to be technically understood in the sense already explained. * With him,' we are told, that is with a certain Ipdging-house keeper at Oxford, who figures in the Miller's Story : With him there was dwelling a pore scoUer Had learned art, but all his fantasye , Was tuned for to lerne astrologye, And coude a certeyn of conclusions To deme by ir.cerro;j;aciouns, If that men axed him, in certeyn houres When that men schuld hav drought or ellys Hchoures ; Or if men axed him what 8hulde befalle , Of every thing I may nought rekeu hem alle. « * * « * * A chamber had he in that hostelerie Alone, withoughten any comjiagnie, Full fetisly ydight with harbes soote [sweet], And he himself as sweet as is the roote Of liquorys or any cetewale [valerian] : His almagest and bookys great and small ; His astrolabe, longing for his art [appertaining to], His augrim siones, lying f aire aparte On schelves couched at his beddes heed, His press y-covered with a folding red. Chaucer probably began early to spell out the Almagest, the opus magnum of Claudius Ptolemy, and to make himself master of the mysteries of the augrim stones, the Arabic algorismic counters. Over and over again, he shows in his treatise on the astrolabe that he could, if he had chosen, have acted the a,8trologer and have cast nati- vities and calculated horoscopes with as great ease and plausibility as Cornelius Agrippa himself ; but he draws for his son Louis a sharp line of difference between judicial and natural astrology, between as- trology and astronomy, truly so called. Of the processes of the com • -irmitr- 4), 16 The Astrolabes of Cham2>lain and Chaucer. mon astrologer he says : 'These been observances of judiciall matter, and rites of paynims, in wliich my spirit hath ne faith, ne knowing of her [their] horoscopum.' I have not yet given a specimen of the subs.ance of Chaucer's treatise, but only the titles of some of the * conclusions ' which it records, and a description of the parts of the instrument by which they ai*e proved. I now give one or two extracts. The want of fixity in the orthography will be noticed ; no peculiarity, however, this of Chaucer 'a The English langtiage, as we know, continued to be uncertain long after his time ; and the variety in the texts of early writers has been increased by the caprices and errors of the tran" scribers. Thus, as we shall remember, Chaucer himself rebiikes one Adam Scrivener for his carelessness in copying his pieces : ' Under thy long locks may'st thou have the scall If thou ray writinR copy not more true I So oft a' day I ninst thy work renew, It to con-ect and eke to rub and scrape ; And all is through thy negligenro and rape.' I select the first passage for the sake of the date which it con- tains, which takes us back at once into the fourteenth century, and places us, as it were, by the side of the scientific poet busily at work with his little son over the latter's miniature astrolabe : also for the sake of the curious comparative ' downer 'for ' farther down,' which occurs at its close. (To be relished fully and judged justly, all my quotations ought properly to appear in blafk UUtXf as in old Speght's folio.) ' Understand well,' Chaucer says to little Louis, * that ever, more fro the arising of the snnne til he go to rest, the radius of the sunne shal shewe the houre of the plannet ; and fro that time forward, all the nyght, till the sunne arise, then shall the very degree of the sunne shew the houre of the planet. Ensample, as thus : the 13 day of March (doubtless as written at length a little while before ; in the yere of oure Lorde a thousand thre hundred ninetie and one) fell up- on a Saturday paraventure, and at the arising of the sunne I found the second degree of Aries sitting upon mine east orizont, all be it was but little. Then found I the second degree of Libra, nadire of my sunne, descending on my west orizont, upon which west orizont, every day generally at the sunne arising, entereth the houre of any plannet, under the foresayd west orizont ; after the which planet the day mmmtm The Astrolabes of Champlain and Chaucer. 17 beareth his name and endeth in the next strike [stroke] of the planet, under the foresaid west orizont ; and ever as the sunne climbeth upper and upper, so goeth his nadire downer and downer, eching [eking, adding on] fro suche strikes the houres of plannets by order as they sitten in heaven.' The next passage is on account of several adverbial words rather quaintly employed therein : sadly, slylj, softly, avisely. He is showing how * to know justly the foure quarters of the world, as East, West, South and North.' • Take the altitude of the sunne,' he says, * when thou liste, and note well the quarter of the worlde in which the sunne is, from the time by the azy mutes; tournethen thyne astrolaby, and set the degree of the sunne in the almicanteras of his altitude on thilke syde that the sunne standeth, as is in maner of takyng of houses, and lay thy labell on the degree of the sunne, and reken how many degrees of the sunne been between the lynne meridionall and the point of thy label, and note well the nombres. Toume then agayne thyne astrolabie and set the poynt of the great rule there thou takest thin altitudes, upon as many degrees in hys bordure from his meridionall as was the point of thy label from the line meridionall on the wombe side. Take then thyne astrolaby with both hands sadly and slyly, and let the sunne shine through both holes of thy rule, and slyly in thilke shining lay thine astrolabie couch a downe even upon a playne ground, and then will the meridionall lyne of thine astrolabie be even South, and the East line will be even East, and the West lyne West, and the North lyne North, so that thou worke softly and avisely in the couching ; and thou hast thus the foure quarters of the firmament.' - The following is his clear and interesting account of a method ' to prove the latitude of any place in a region by the preffe of the height of the pole artike in that same place ' : — * In some winters night,' he says, * when the firmament is cleere and thicke sterred : wayt a time till that any ster fix sit line right perpendiculer over the pole artike, and clepe that ster A ; and wayte another sterre that sit lyne right under A, and under the pole, and clepe that sterre F ; and understand well that F is not considerd but onely to declare that A that sit ever on the pole. Take then anone right the altitude of A from the orizonte and forgette it not. Let A and F go farewel till a/^aynst the dawnyng ft great while, and come 18 The Astrolabes of Champlain and Chaucer. i('. then again, and abide till that A is even under the pole under F, for sothely then will F sit over the pole. Take then eftsones the altitude of A from the orizonte, and note as well the seconde as the first alti- tude. And when that this is done, reken how many degrees that the first altitude A exceeded his altitude, and take halfe the ilk porcion that is exceeded, and add it to his second altitude, and take there the elevacion of the pole and eke the altitude of thy region. For these two ben of one nombre, that is to saine, as many degrees as thy pole is elevat, so moch is the latitude of thy region. Ensaraple as thus : Paraventure the altitude of A in the evening is 82 degrees of hyght, then will the second altitude or the dawnying be 2 1 ; that is to saine, less by 61 than was his first altitude at even. Take then the halfof 61, and adde to it 21, that was his second altitude, and then thouhastthe height of the pole and the latitude of thy region. But understand well,' he adds, * to preve this conclusion, and many another fayre con- clusion, thou mayest heve a plomet hangyng on a lyne higher than thy head on a perche, and that lyne mote hang even perpendiculer bitwixt the pole and thine eye, and shalt tho^isee if A sit seven over the pole and over F at even. And also if F sit even over the pole and over A at day.' My last specimen shall be the * conclusion,' entitled * Special declara- tion of the Ascendent,' in which Chaucer takes occasion to speak of a subtle process by which certain portions ofthe heavenly bodies, as- trologically bad, are sometimes, nevertheless, interpreted as good. ' The Ascendent,' he says, * soothly is as well in all nativities as in questions, and as in elections of times, is a thing which that the as- trologians greatly observen ; wherefore meseemeth convenient, sens I speake of the ascendent, to mak of it a special declaration. The as- cendent soothly, to take it at the largest, is thilke degree that ascendeth at anye of these foresayd times on the East orizont ; and therefore, if that any planet ascend at thilke same time in the foresaid same gree of his longitude, men say that thilke plannet is in Horoacopo ; but thly, the house of that ascendent, that is to say, the first house or the Booeast angle, is a thing more broad and large ; for, after the statute of astrologiens, what celestial body that is five degrees above thilke degree that ascendeth on the orizont, or within that number, that is to say, nere the degree that ascendeth, yet reken they thilke planet in the ascendent ; and what planet is under thilke degree that ascendeth the Tlic Adrolahes of Champlaln and Chaucer. 19 space of 25 degrees, yet Haiti they, tluit j)lanet is like to lilni, that is [in] the house of the ascentlent ; but soothly, if he pass the bounds of the foresaid spaces, above or beneath, tliey sayne that thilke planet is falling fro the ascendent ; yet sayne tliese astiologians, that tiie ascend- ent nmy be 8ha[)en for to be fortunate or infortunate, as thus : A fortunate ascendent clea[»en they, when that no wicked planet of Saturne or Mars or els the taile of the Dragon is in the house of tha ascendent, ne that no wicked planet have no aspect of enniitie upon the ascendent ; but they woU cast that they have fortunate '>lanet in her (their) ascendent, and yet in his felicitie, and they say that it is well. Further more, they sayne that Fortune of an As*: endent is the contrary of these foresaid thyngs. The Lord of the ascendent, sayne they, that he is fortunate when he is in good place for the ascendent, and eke the Lord of the Ascendent is in an angle or in a succedtnt, where he is in his dignitie and coTuforted with friendle aspectes re- ceyved, and eke that he may scene the Ascendent not retrograde, ne combust, ne joyned with no shrewe in the same signe, ne that he be not in his discention, ne reigned with no planet in his discentions, ne have upon him none a8[)ect infortunate ; and then they sayne that he is well.' Then follows the declaration already quoted : ' Natheiesso these ben observances of judiciall matter and rites of payninis, in which my spirit hath no faith ne knowing of ther horoscopum : for they sayn,' he adds, ' that every signe is dei)arted in three even partes V)y ten degrees, and the ilk portion they clepen a Face ; and although a planet have a latitude fro the Ecliptike yet saien some folk so that the planet arise in that same signe with any degree of the foresaid face in which is longitude, is rekened, yet is that i)laiiet in horoscope, be it in nativities or in election.' This exi)osition of de- tails on the part of the astrologians was, no doubt, clear enough to Chaucer ; but he did not care that his son, or any other future re- ader, should be further initiated in a pseudo-science. It remains now to say a few words of the little Louis, to whom the 'Treatise on the Astrolabe ' was addressed. It appears that he was at the time only ten years of age. The subject discussed may seem to us one above the capacities of a lad of such tender years. But Chaucer understood the boy. He saw that he had inherited a mathematical head ; that he was developing tastes similar to his own. Often, doubt, less, had the child stood by while the father was experimenting with 20 The Astrolabes of Cnamplain and Chaucer. an astrolabe, and without any eflfort he had become precociously fami- liar with the instrument and its mysteries, Just as a clever child now quickly masters chess or elementary chemistry. Should we not have liked to overhear the quiet confidential interchange of talk between the two, while the instrument was being manipulated ( We would have been interested in the English ; so homely occasionally ; so provincial perhaps sometimes, we would think in pronunciation, and tone and style ! The application for further instruction in the astrolabe, in its theory and practical use, came, we are informed, from Louis ; and the father was only too glad to gratify him. So he provided him with an astro- labe, not one of full size, as it would seem, but still not a toy ; and in addition he furnished him with the tractate which we have been ex- amining. It would be simply amusement to Louis to carry forward to any extent the studies suggested ; and philosophy in sport would be sure to become science in earnest with him by and by, if his life should be spared ; and Chaucer was quite willing that his son should be grounded in the best knowledge that could be had ; in the true science of nature, so far as it had then been attained. The natural aflfection of the father breaks out in several places in the treatise. It is observable in the first sentence of the book, * Little Louis, my sonne/ he says, * I perceive well by certain evidences, thine ability to learn sciences, touching numbers and proportions ; and also well consider I thy busy prayer in especial to learn the treatise of the astrolabye. Then,' he continues, ' for as much as a philosopher saith ; hee wrappeth him in his friend that condescendeth to the rightfull prayers of his friend, therefore I have given thee a sufiicient astrolabie for our orizont, compowned after the latitude of Oxenforde; upon the which, by the mediation of the little treatise I purpose to teach thee a certain number of conclusions pertayning to this same instrument.' Again, further on, where he defines which is the right side and which is the left of the astrolabe : ' The east side of the astrolabie is cleaped the right side, and the west side is cleaped the left side; forget not this little Louis.' And similarly, the name of the lad addressed, suddenly appears in other places. Chaucer adopts an apologetic tone for having ventured to deliver the treatise on the astrolabe to his son in the English tongue. He stood in some awe perhaps of certain members of the tet^ching order, 1 I- Tlte Antrohibcn of Champlain and Chaucer. 21 old frieiulH at ( )xf()nl in y^' dispensed on the subject in hand. The book ought of course to b»! made harder, he seems to say, by transla- tion into Latin ; ho hop(>8, however, the boy will have the good sense not to desi)ise it on account of its familiar guise ; but he does not see why English folk should not make use of their vernacular in matters of learning, just as ancient nations had done with their resj)ectivo vernaculars. The old nations did not each translate the truths of science into a foreign tongue, and then master them, bui they mastered them out of Iwoks in their own tongue. Theiefore, he says to Louis : * Sufficeth to thee these true conclusions in Engli.sh, as well as sutiiceth to the noble clerks, the Greekes, these same conclusions in Greek ; and to the Arabines, in Arabike; and to Jews, in Hebrew ; and to the Latin folke in Latine which Latin folk themselves', he adds, ' had hem first out of other divers languages, and writ hem in her [their] own tongue, that is to sayne in Latine.' Soon after this he brings to a close his address to the boy on this .subject, merrily and loyally, thus: ' Louis,' he says, * if so be that I shew thee in my lith [scant] English, as true conclusions touching this matter, and not only as true, but as many and subtill conclusions, as ben yshewed in Latine, in any common treatise of the astrolabie, conne me tlie more thanke ; and may God save the king, who is lord of this Ingauage, and all that him faith beareth and obeyeth, everiche [one] in his degree, the more and the lasse.' In thus breaking away from the mediueval routine in the in- struction of the young, Chaucer shews himself a worthy forerunner of Roger Ascham and Milton, of Locke, Gibbon, and the modem school generally of enlightened educationists. We know^ notl/jig of the subsequent history of little Louis. The ■SSBBF ■n mmm 22 The Astrolabes of Chaniplain and Chaucer. m r career of an elder brother Thomas, is noted in some of the biographies of the poet J but the boy Louis passes off the stage without giving any further sign. He is seen only, but very clearly, in the ' Treatise on the Astrolabe.' Like one of the tiny ephemera of ages long ago oc- casionally seen in amber, there he remains embalmed. Perhai)s we have a reminiscence of him in the story told by the Prioress, on the way to Canterbury, about the 'little clergion, seven years of age,' martyred by the Jews in a * great city in Asia,' for singing /lima Re- demptoris Mater, as he passed through their ghetto. ' This litel child his litel boke lerning, As he sat in the scole at his prymer, He Alma Redemptoris herde singe As childern lerned hir [their] antiphoner, And as he dorste, he drougli hym ner and ner And herkned ay the wordes .and the note, Till he the first vers coude al by rote Nought wiste what this Latin was to sey, For he so young and tendre was oi age ; But on a day his felaw gan he preye T 'expouuden him this song in his langage Or telle him why this song was in usage. ' • I'V^ [iill This sounds very like an incident in the childhood of the little lad, who at ten years of age desired to be told all about the astrolabe. It is to be hoped that over stimulation of the brain by a too great absorption in mutters fitted for riper minds, did not prove the cause of premature decay in little Louis. Here of course is a danger which will attend the cuse of a precociously clever child in every age. We are all familiar with the figure of Geoffrey Chaucer himself, from the full length effigy of him supplied by Thomas Occleve, and given in Speght, and often prefixed as a fi'ontispiece to his works. As with Shakespeare, Dante, Caxton, Milton and others, we can fancy we have seen him ; his loose hood, his dreamy down-cast eyes: ' What man art thou That lookest as thou wouldest find a hare, For ever on the ground I"see thee stare :' his forked beard, his short, easy-fitting frock or paletot ; his pen-case and pen held daintily over his breast, in the right hand ; a rosaiy of beads in the (left, falling lower down ; his hosen-clad calves ; his '/'- The Astrolabes of Champlain and Chaucer. 23 pointed shoon or rather boots made with a flap like our Canadian gal- oshes of felt. The beard excepted, we can visualize to ourselves the young Louis, a as miniature counterpart of his father, with garments of precisely the same cut and pattern ; altogether, perhaps, an old-fashioned look- ing little tigure. I suggest to a Canadian artist a subject ; ' Geoffrey Chaucer in- structing his sou Louis in the use of ihe Astrolabe.' There would I3 a fine opportunity for a mediaeval interior, a student's sanctum of the past, with well-worked-out accessories ; two forms engaged over an as- trolabe ; in the wall beyond, an op«n window shewing a night sky with a streak of dawn. /