Celestial Sleuth: Using Astronomy to Solve Mysteries in Art, History and Literature.

Author / Editor
Olson, David W.

Title
Celestial Sleuth: Using Astronomy to Solve Mysteries in Art, History and Literature.

Published
New York: Springer, 2013.

Physical Description
xvii, 355 pp.; color and b&w illus.

Description
Includes discussion of FranT (pp. 282–93), tabulating historical astronomical data and arguing that Chaucer "used the configuration of the Sun and Moon in December 1340 as the inspiration for the time of year [late December] and for the central plot device [high tide]" of the Tale. Suggests that the date may have caught his eye because it was his birth year.

Chaucer Subjects
Franklin and His Tale
Chaucer's Life