Literature: Chaucer: Home

The Ellesmere Manuscript is the most complete, authentic version of the "Canterbury Tales" and the most famous literary treasure in the Huntington Library's collections. The manuscript's 464 text pages are embellished with floriated borders, illuminated initials and other decorations, and twenty-three illustrations of the pilgrim-storytellers. In 1995, the Huntington Library and the Yushodo Co., Ltd., of Japan produced a color facsimile of this beautiful manuscript. The transparencies that were the basis of the landmark color facsimile were then used to make a full-size, monochromatic facsimile, an edition of special usefulness for those involved in textual and other studies where color is not of primary significance. The Huntington's purpose in producing the monochromatic facsimile is to make available an edition that is more readily affordable to students, scholars, and libraries. Elegantly printed by the Stinehour Press of Lunenberg, Vermont, the facsimile conveys the trim, texture, and decoration of the original manuscript pages. It also features a color frontispiece, the page that begins the Knight's Tale. The facsimile can be a useful teaching tool in courses on Chaucer and the history of the book as well as a cornerstone in every library (private or public) supporting the study of literature in English.

An encyclopedic guide to the fourteenth-century poet's life and works examines Chaucer's language, historical events, and literary influences in his work.

This book is the most comprehensive guide to Chaucer's work and the history of its reception available. It comprises 37 specially commissioned chapters by an outstanding team of contemporary Chaucer scholars and combines general essays offering background and contextual information withdetailed readings of specific Chaucerian texts. The volume is divided into five parts - 'Historical Contexts', 'Literary Contexts', 'Readings', 'Afterlife' and 'Study Resources'. Each chaper includes a Guide to Further Reading and there is a Chronology at the end of the volume. The Guide is accompanied by a companion web site which includes four additional contributions for teachers and lecturers on teaching and learning issues related to Chaucer.

More than 900 entries, carefully selected, organized, and annotated, and accompanied by informative background material, make this volume a unique and indispensable guide to Chaucer and related studies. The entries are divided into three categories. The first includes materials necessary for the study of Chaucer's works: complete editions, facsimiles, studies of manuscripts, canon, and dating, works on the poet's life, language, and learning, and his sources and influences. The second section covers Chaucer's works. The third contains a selection of secondary works which provide information on the age and the culture in which Chaucer lived; music, the visual arts, economics and politics, rhetoric and poetics, and sciences among the subjects included. Most entries listed are in English, but a few essential studies in French and German are included. Items have been selected not only on the basis of quality but also for importance in the history of scholarship, variety of approach, and specific usefulness to students and beginners.