John Somer was one of the leading English astronomers of the late fourteenth century. Geoffrey Chaucer likely consulted Somer’s Kalendarium to relate dates, times, and movements of the stars and planets to events in his tales. In her introduction to this scholarly edition, Linne Mooney discusses not only Somer’s importance but also Chaucer’s use of the Kalendarium in composing his texts from The Parliament of Fowls through The Canterbury Tales. She examines the thirty-three complete and nine fragmentary copies of the work known today and explains Somer’s innovative and influential eclipse tables, adopted by some scribes in later copies of the Kalendarium of Nicholas of Lynn, a contemporary of Somer’s. Somer’s Kalendarium itself is presented in the original Latin text with English translation on facing pages. Mooney also provides full textual apparatus for the eleven complete manuscripts closest to the base text.
America's Instability: the Present, the Past, and a Challenging Future is a description of the various wars between conflicting value systems throughout Western civilization. America's national election of 2016 is a graphic example of the cultural arguments embedded in our social history. This study does not attempt to solve these complex problems but to clarify their impact on our lives. The opening chapters describe the current systems for evaluating social clashes. The next seven chapters discuss the series of clashes in Western civilization from the Epic of Gilgamesh, the first preserved book, to the cosmic shock of the twentieth century. The next section discusses the two philosophical systems associated with our national crisis. Chapters twelve and thirteen discuss America's unique problems. The following five chapters focus on the violence in Syria as it is aided by Russia. This small nation might be the crisis point of America's place in history. The final chapter offers an image to remind Americans that the United States is more than a geographical entity. We citizens are the United States, and therefore, we have a responsibility to address, disinterestedly, our current problems that rise from a global unrest.
John Somer was one of the leading English astronomers of the late fourteenth century. Geoffrey Chaucer likely consulted Somer’s Kalendarium to relate dates, times, and movements of the stars and planets to events in his tales. In her introduction to this scholarly edition, Linne Mooney discusses not only Somer’s importance but also Chaucer’s use of the Kalendarium in composing his texts from The Parliament of Fowls through The Canterbury Tales. She examines the thirty-three complete and nine fragmentary copies of the work known today and explains Somer’s innovative and influential eclipse tables, adopted by some scribes in later copies of the Kalendarium of Nicholas of Lynn, a contemporary of Somer’s. Somer’s Kalendarium itself is presented in the original Latin text with English translation on facing pages. Mooney also provides full textual apparatus for the eleven complete manuscripts closest to the base text.
Louise Rosenblatt: The Essence of Civility is a philosophical, scientific, and practical justification of Rosenblatt's argument that struggling with words develops the mind to cope with ambiguities of reality. In 1938, Louise Rosenblatt wrote about literature and exploration and addressed an ancient dilemma. The problem was introduced centuries ago when the Akkadians wrote the first dictionary. Writers had depended on words to clarify social conflicts, and eventually, they realized the ambiguity of language. This problem existed beyond the Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, languages received a resounding blow. The deists and scientists preferred rational numbers to arbitrary words. The result was that ancient writings lost their grip on Western civilization. In an attempt to rescue social harmony, Mathew Arnold, in the nineteenth century, argued that literature at least contained the wisdom of the ages. In the twentieth century, however, literary critics rationally studied a work of literature, and scientists studied the roots of languages. Both ignored the value of reading literature. Today, technology absorbs and guides our lives. Rosenblatt's ideas are now crucial. When readers struggle with the ambiguities in words, they also struggle with their conceptions of reality. In this process, the brain learns to accept challenges, to rise above rigid assumptions, and to acquire the flexibility to accept the human condition.
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