Chaucer and Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen): "Perspectiva," Arabic Mathematics, and Acts of Looking.

Author / Editor
Jagot, Shazia.

Title
Chaucer and Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen): "Perspectiva," Arabic Mathematics, and Acts of Looking.

Published
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 44 (2022): 27-61

Description
Challenges the limitations of traditional source-and-analogue study, exploring resonances between SqT and the "Kitab al-Manazir" of Ibn al-Haytham /Alhacen to which it alludes (see SqT, 232–45), including discussion of mediating sources in Latin and French, especially Jean de Meun's "Roman de la Rose." Shows that aspects of Ibn al-Haytham's theory of sight--dependent upon the acts of looking and the intentions of the beholder--recur in SqT, and are also evident in KnT, PhyT, and TC, exemplifying rich intertextuality with Arabic, "Islamicate" learning in late medieval England.

Chaucer Subjects
Squire and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Troilus and Criseyde
Knight and His Tale
Physician and Hiss Tale