Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

the more declaracioun, lo here thy figure.

[18.] Upon this forseide plate ben compassed certein cercles

that highten Almicanteras, of which som of hem semen perfit

cercles, and somme semen inperfit. The centre that standith

a-middes the narwest cercle is cleped the Senith; and the

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netherest cercle, or the firste cercle, is clepid the Orisonte, that

is to seyn, the cercle that devydeth the two emisperies, that is,

the partie of the hevene a-bove the erthe and the partie be-nethe.

Thise Almicanteras ben [compowned by two and two], al-be-it so