Changing Times: The Mechanical Clock in Late Medieval Literature

Author / Editor
Bradbury, Nancy Mason, and Carolyn P. Collette.

Title
Changing Times: The Mechanical Clock in Late Medieval Literature

Published
Chaucer Review 43 (2009): 351-75.

Description
Bradbury and Collette survey historical records and literary representations of clocks in works by Jean Froissart, Henry Suso, Philippe de Mézières, and Christine de Pizan. The article counters the notion that the mechanical clock caused a sudden shift from "qualitative" to "quantitative" time, showing instead that the clock was a figure for personal and political regulation. Multiple kinds of time in NPT invite readers to consider "the extent to which Chaucer genuinely adheres to traditional ideas of qualitative time. . . ."

Contributor
Collette, Carolyn P.

Chaucer Subjects
Nun's Priest and His Tale