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

twelve signes. And, for the [streitnes] of thin Astrolabie, than is

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every smal devisioun in a signe departid by two degrees and two;

I mene degrees contening sixty minutes. And this forseide

hevenissh zodiak is cleped the Cercle of the Signes, or the Cercle

of the Bestes; for zodia in langage of Greek sowneth 'bestes' in

Latin tonge; and in the zodiak ben the twelve signes that ban

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names of bestes; or elles, for whan the sonne entreth in any of the

signes, he taketh the propretee of swich bestes; or elles, for that