Astronomical Lore in Chaucer

This work explores why Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetry is peppered with references to the sky, stars, and planetary influences. By placing his verses within the everyday reality of a medieval world that relied on celestial observation for timekeeping, agriculture, and personal destiny, the author shows how the heavens were as practical as they were mystical to Chaucer’s contemporaries.

The study begins with a clear overview of medieval astronomy—then indistinguishable from astrology—and the prevailing geocentric model that placed Earth at the universe’s fixed centre. It then follows how Chaucer, like Dante and later Milton, wove this cosmology into his narratives, using planets and their supposed virtues to shape character and plot. Detailed explanations of Ptolemaic theory, planetary attributes, and the cultural importance of horoscopes make the subject both scholarly and approachable.

Readers will come away with a richer appreciation of how medieval people understood their world through the motions of the heavens, and how that perception subtly guided some of English literature’s greatest medieval works.