ABSTRACT

In Chaucer’s time the terrestrial zodiac was supposed to be attached to the fixed ninth sphere; the fixed stars and hence the stellar zodiac to the movable eighth sphere, and the sun and moon and the planets to seven other spheres, which were also movable. In Chaucer’s time it must have “shove” about twenty-one degrees. This proves that Chaucer, as might be expected, was not only familiar with the precession, but also took it into account. Chaucer knew about the precession of the equinoxes and took it into account in the Franklin’s Tale. The natural interpretation of the lines in the Prologue would no doubt be that the sun had covered the first half, that is, the first fifteen degrees of the zodiacal sign of Aries. There need, however, be no inconsistency at all if it is assumed that Chaucer does not here refer to the zodiacal sign but to the constellation of fixed stars, i.e. the stellar zodiac.