‘Chaucer’s own astrolabe’: text, image and object

This paper considers the relationship between manuscripts of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Treatise on the astrolabe and a group of surviving instruments related to them. I suggest that, just as there are astronomical influences in Chaucer’s literary works, there are literary and courtly influences in the Treatise on the astrolabe. I argue that the instruments were probably made from the diagrams and text of the manuscripts, and suggest that Chaucer’s posthumous fame encouraged the production of astrolabes to his design. It was not so much ‘Chaucer’s own astrolabe’ as ‘an astrolabe just like Chaucer’s’.