Ripples on the Water? The Acoustics of Geoffrey Chaucer's "House of Fame" and the Influence of Robert Holcot.

Author / Editor
Cartlidge, Neil.

Title
Ripples on the Water? The Acoustics of Geoffrey Chaucer's "House of Fame" and the Influence of Robert Holcot.

Published
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 39 (2017): 57-97.

Description
Discredits the idea that the Eagle's disquisition on sound in HF is conventional Aristotelianism, mediated by Robert Grosseteste or Walter Burley, arguing that the details of the multiplying ripples and the combination of science and myth were influenced instead by Robert Holcot's commentary on the Book of Wisdom. Describes Holcot's career among the Oxford Calculators (Mertonians) and explains Holcot's influence on HF and elsewhere in Chaucer.

Chaucer Subjects
House of Fame
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations