Learning medieval astronomy through tables: the case of the \textit{Equatorie of the Planetis} (Q6604542)

This study of demonstrates how new insights can continue to be made even into such a well-studied historical object as the late fourteenth-century manuscript \textit{Equatorie of the Planetis} held by Cambridge University. The present work builds on the previous analyses of the distinguished historians Derek J. Price and John North and adds some important revisions. It also takes advantage of more recent research by K. A. Rand showing that, contrary to the arguments of Price and North, summarized here, this treatise was not the work of Geoffrey Chaucer but rather of the monk John Westwyk.\N\NInstead of regarding this as a work written by an experienced practitioner for a beginning user of an equatorium, an instrument for computing the positions of planets, it is here seen as a work by an amateur laying out how to use the instrument while himself learning and experimenting. Whereas previous historians regarded the appended pages of astronomical tables, which varied in quality, as not even a part of the original treatise, this new point of view allows the tables to be treated as a companion to the text. Furthermore, the point is made that it is precisely the amateur quality of the text and especially of the tables that enables valuable historical insight into their construction. Miscopying from earlier standard tables and added calculations ostensibly providing greater precision, are means of determining how they were produced. The author conjectures that Westwyk could have been alternating between use of the equatorium and use of tables, each having advantages and disadvantages in determining astronomical locations.\N\NThe paper provides examples of calculations which, together with helpful illustrations, give a substantial sense of how the non-expert Westwyk worked.