Naming the Unnamed "Philosofre" in Chaucer's Prologue to the "Treatise on the Astrolabe."
- Author / Editor
- Stadolnik, Joseph.
Naming the Unnamed "Philosofre" in Chaucer's Prologue to the "Treatise on the Astrolabe."
- Published
- Medium Aevum 85.2 (2016): 314-18.
- Description
- Maintains that the quoted maxim on friendship in Astr is misattributed to classical sources and actually comes from a twelfth-century medical treatise, "Practica brevis," attributed to Johannes Platearius. While Chaucer may have seen the line in Platearius, he may have read it in an alchemical treatise. Argues that Chaucer's use of the phrase may indicate the adaptation of dedicatory rhetoric across scientific genres.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Treatise on the Astrolabe
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations