Thyne Oldest Known Tech Manual

johnshirley writes "How old is the oldest known technical manual? About 613 years, it seems. Written in 1391 by Geoffrey Chaucer for his ten year old son Lewis (Lowys), the manual explains in great detail but very rough spelling and grammar, the intricate workings of the Astrolabe--the predecessor to the sextant. Read Chaucer's 'A Treatise on the Astrolabe here."

Comments

Yeah, that made sense

[The I Shing]

That was -- ahem -- an interesting read. I liked the part where I had absolutely no idea what he was saying.

Nevertheless, I'm always impressed by how flowery the language was in the old days, considering how time-consuming it was to actually pen something.

In our day and age, we have the ability to dash things off at fifty to a hundred words a minute (depending on typing ability), and we make nearly everything we compose direct to the point of sterility.

Re:Yeah, that made sense

[Ubergrendle]

I'd argue (as have others) that English has become the modern day Latin. Perpetuated by Empire (first British, then American), it has become the common language of commerce and science. English has the added advantage of a very clear gramatical structure (e.g. no masculine/feminine nouns) and is very well suited to the adoption of words from other languages.

It is a difficult language to learn at first, given the numerous exceptions in its vocabulary (e.g. 'knife', 'i after e except after c, except when...', 'a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes y').

English today is not the language of Shakespeare or Donne or Tennyson, or even T.S.Elliot. It reflects our society, and the world we live in, which is very driven by the forces of science, progressive-ism, and capitalism. Accordingly, our use of English has become more and more direct, as we value accuracy and elegance more than anything else.

It can still be beautiful. Take for example this poem by Leonard Cohen:

With Annie gone,
whose eyes to compare
With the morning sun?
Not that I did compare,
But I do compare
Now that she's gone.

Simple, direct, elegant...easibly read and understood. But very modern in its approach. I love it.

Re:Yeah, that made sense

[Anonymous Coward]

"At this time the procedure engenders a high probability of resulting in a fatal outcome."

That means

"The procedure is dangerous."

Obfuscation isn't used because people are stupid. It's used because people are smart and want to cover their asses.

Re:I can't figure out...

[scheme]

Spellings weren't really standardized until fairly recently (less than 150 years ago). Latin and Greek texts may have more standardized spellings but that is due to linguistic constraints. Besides original latin texts didn't have any spaces between words and that things like a v standing in for both a u and v.

Re:I can't figure out...

[Ieshan]

Yes, but you'd expect that whatever Chaucer made up for "treatise", be it "tretys" or "trytis", he'd use the same thing throughout the text.

time was less scarce ??

[giampy]

I think in those times the relationship
with time was much different. Much less hectic.

The rhythms of work and life were much more
subjected to things like daylight, seasons and
stuff like that.

Re:Chauncer?!

[khallow]

Gosh. You people really need a humanities / social sciences editor here.

Why? You're doing it for free! ;-)

Isn't the Bible and Instruction manual?

[xagon7]

Take a look through Liviticus....

Rough spelling?

[vorwerk]

It's middle English, not "rough spelling". Chaucer was one of the forefathers of the English language, and considered by many scholars to be one of the first major poets to write not in French or Latin (as was popular in the day), but in the language of the common people -- English.

If it weren't for Chaucer, many argue that the English language we know today never would have received the same amount of attention as it (eventually) did among the noble English class.

Has nobody read to the end?

[Artifex]

Geoffrey Chaucer lived appr. 1340-1400. "A Treatise on the Astrolabe" was once believed to have been written for a son of Chaucer's. "Lyte Lowys" (Little Lewis) is, however, presumably the son of a friend, Lewis Clifford. The boy probably died in 1391, which might explain why this work is unfinished. The text is the oldest known "technical manual" in the English language, and it was compiled from different foreign sources. The beginning is, however, Chaucer's very own. This version is the F. N. Robinson edition.

It appears that he wrote it for a friend's kid, who may have died before it was completed. Look beyond what Chaucer wrote, and imagine what might have happened. Possibly, the kid kept asking "Uncle Geoffrey" whenever he visited how his cool astrolabe thing worked, and Chaucer started writing this for him... and then he gets the news that little Lewis is dead.

That's pretty sad, not because he spent time writing this, but because he liked the kid enough to make the attempt, then had to deal with his death. This is more than a scientific document, it's a hint as to what life was like back then.