Geoffrey Chaucer's Inspirational Astronomy

OK, so I missed Andy Murray's Wimbledon semi-final.  And I missed seeing England hammer the Aussies in Cardiff.  But I didn't care.  Because I was incredibly excited to be at my first Chaucer conference.

The Biennial London Chaucer Conference took place at the Institute of English Studies last Friday and Saturday.  Given that the manuscript I work on has been (wrongly) attributed to Chaucer, and that the theme of this year's conference was "Science, Magic, and Technology", this was one conference I couldn't miss.

And I'm so glad I was there.  An inspiring series of presentations took hugely varied approaches to the theme.  Literary, historical or scientific, they were all fascinating and I learned so much.  If you want a flavour, check out the #Chaucer2015 hashtag on Twitter.  My cardboard astrolabe featured in the conference's most popular tweet!

You know it's an awesome #Chaucer & science conference when SOMEBODY busts out an #astrolabe. #medieval #Chaucer2015 pic.twitter.com/IUEn5iIvd9

— Jonathan Hsy (@JonathanHsy) July 10, 2015

If you want to know what I had to say about Chaucer and his influence on the Equatorie of the Planetis, why not watch the video of my presentation (above)?  Hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to comment!

The vernacular in medieval astronomy - at Kalamazoo

I recently returned from the International Congress on Medieval Studies.  It's held every year at the University of Western Michigan in Kalamazoo (USA), and this year was the 50th congress.

3000 medievalists met to discuss everything from Viking archaeology to Middle English poetry - and of course there was a mead and ale tasting.  I'll put together some tweets from the congress in a future post.  For now, here's a recording (with PowerPoint slides) of my presentation at the conference.  Hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to comment!