17. sothly] soþly CP; _miswritten_ he settes (!) AB. 18. hir Episicle] _so in_ CP; _by an odd mistake_, AB _put_ hire _after_ manere, _instead of before_ Episicle. § 37, l. 10. than] þan C; AB _omit_. is] AS _omit; but it is obviously wanted_; C _varies here_. 12. 12 house next] 12 hous next C; howses nex (_sic_) AB. 13. thanne] þan C; A _omits_. howse] hous C; howses AB. 17. AB _absurdly insert_ fro _before_ the byginning. 18. _first_ the] þe C; AB _omit_. § 38, l. 1. warpyng MP; werpynge C; weripinge (_sic_) A. 2. _first_ a CP; AB _omit_. 3, 4. an euene C; a enene AB (_twice_). 8. fro the centre; i.e. _above_ the centre. The length of the pin, measured from the centre in which it is inserted, is to be not more than a quarter of the diameter, or half the radius. This would make the ratio of the gnomon to the shadow (or radius) to be one-half, corresponding to an altitude _a_, where tan _a_ = ½; i.e. to an altitude of about 26½°. As Chaucer talks about the sun's altitude being 25½° at about 9 o'clock, at the time of the equinoxes (sect. 3), there is nothing that is particularly absurd in the text of this section. For Mr. Brae's conjectural emendations, see p. 56 of his edition. 16. tak thanne] _so in_ P; tak me thanne AB; take me þan C. But there seems no sufficient reason for thus inserting _me_ here. § 39. At this point MS. A, which has so far, in spite of occasional errors of the scribe, afforded a very fair text, begins to break down; probably because the corrector's hand has not touched the two concluding sections, although section 40 is much less corrupt. The result is worth recording, as it shews what we may expect to find, even in good MSS. of the Astrolabe. The section commences thus (the obvious misreadings being printed in italics):-- 'This lyne M_e_ridional ys but a Man_er_ desc_r_ipc_i_on _or the_ ymagined, that passeth vpon the pooles of þis _the_ world And by the cenyth of owre heued / And hit is _the same_ lyne M_er_idional / for in what place þat any maner man [_omission_] any tyme of the yer / whan that the sonne _schyneth ony thing_ of the firmament cometh to his verrey _Middel lyne of the_ place / than is hit verrey Midday, þat we clepen owre noon,' &c. It seems clear that this apparent trash was produced by a careless scribe, who had a good copy before him; it is therefore not necessary to reject it all as unworthy of consideration, but it is very necessary to correct it by collation with other copies. And this is what I have done. MS. B has almost exactly the same words; but the section is considerably better, in general sense, in MSS. C and P, for which reason I here quote from the former the whole section. [_Rawl. MS. Misc. 1370, fol. 40 b._] DESCRIPCIOUN OF ÞE MERIDIONAL LYNE, OF ÞE LONGITUDES AND LATITUDES OF CITEES AND TOWNES, AS WEL AS OF A (SIC) CLYMATZ.