'The dygnytes of planetis in the signes, most speciall they be to be noted in iudicials. When the mone is in Ariete, it is not gode, but vtterly to be exshewed, both for seke And disesid, for to shafe theire hede or to boist in the eris or in the nek; nor loke þou let no blode in the vayn of the hede. How-be-it, benyficiall it is to begynne euery worke that þou woldest bryng aboute sone. But that thynge that is stabill ought to be eschewed. In this signe it is necessary to dele with noble estatis And rich men, And for to go in-to A bayne [bath][[76]].'—Same MS., Tract C. p. 14.
[54, 5]. See Prologue, l. 73. As the zodiak is here called a part of the eighth sphere, so we have been before told that the equinoctial is the girdle of the ninth sphere; see note above to sect 17. l. 28.
[57]. evene parties, equal parts. That is, the equinoctial bisects the zodiac. But the northern half looks much smaller than the southern on the Astrolabe, owing to the manner in which the zodiac is there represented, viz. by projection on the plane of the equator.
Part II. § 1. [Rubric], hir cours. The gender of the sun was feminine in Anglo-Saxon, and that of the moon masculine; but in Chaucer's time, the gender was very variable, owing to the influence of Latin and French.
§ 3. Between sections 2 and 3, a section is inserted in the late copies, which merely repeats section 1, and is clearly spurious. It does not appear at all in the best MSS.; though it is found in the black-letter editions. I quote it here from MS. L.
'To knowe the degre of thyn sonne in thyn zodiak by the days in the baksyde off the Astrolabye.
'[T]hanne iff þou wylte wete thatt / rekyn & knowe / qwych is the day off the monyth thatt thow arte ynne, & ley thy rewle of thy astrolabye, that is to sey, the allydatha, vpon þe day in the kalendre off the Astrolabye, & he schall schewe the thy degree of the sonne.'
[26, 7]. After 'assendent,' the following additional paragraph occurs in MS. Bodley 619; fol. 21. It is worthy of notice, because the original of it appears in Messahala's treatise, with the title 'De noticia stellarum incognitarum positarum in astrolabio.' The paragraph runs thus:—
'Nota. þat by þis conclusion þou may knowe also where ben at þat same tyme alle oþir sterres fixed þat ben sette in thin Astrelabie, and in what place of þe firmament; And also her arising in thy orizonte, and how longe þat thei wol ben aboue þe erthe wiþ þe Arke of þe nyght / And loke euermore hov many degrees þou fynde eny sterre at þat tyme sitting vpon þin Almycanteras, and vp-on as many degrees sette þou þe reule vpon þe altitude in þe bordere; And by the mediacioun of þy eye through þe .2. smale holes shalt thou se þe same sterre by the same altitude aforseid, And so by this conclusioun may þou redely knowe whiche is oo sterre from a-noþer in the firmament / for as many as ben in the Astrelabie. For by þat same altitude shal thou se that same sterre, & non othir / for þere ne wolle non othir altitude accorde þerto.'
[30]. Alhabor; i.e. Sirius or the Dog-star, as is evident from the fact of its being represented by a dog's head on the Astrolabe; see also the table of stars marked on the Astrolabe (in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. li. 3. 3, fol. 70, back), which gives the declination 15° S, the latitude 39° S, and places the star in Cancer. It is also plainly described in the same table as being 'in ore canis', so that it is difficult to resist the conclusion of the identity of Alhabor and Sirius. Mr. Brae, following later copies that have different readings of the numbers employed, identifies Alhabor with Rigel or β Orionis. This is impossible, from the fact that Rigel and Alhabor both occur in the diagrams and tables; see, for instance, [Fig. 2]. It is true that Rigel was sometimes called Algebar, but Alhabor stands rather for the Arabic Al-’abūr. The Arabic name for the constellation Canis Major was Al-kalb al-akbar, 'greater dog,' as distinguished from Al-kalb al-asghar, or 'lesser dog'; and the star α Canis Majoris was called Al-shi’ra al-’abūr, the former of which terms represented the Greek σείριος (Sirius), whilst from the latter (al-’abūr) we have our Alhabor. See Ideler, Über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, pp. 237, 256.