The Canterbury Tales

The New Ellesmere Chaucer Monochromatic Facsimile (of Huntington Library MS EL 26 C 9)

Publishers: San Marino, California: Huntington Library and  Tokyo: Yushodo Co., Ltd.  1997.  Daniel Woodward & Martin Stevens, Editors.  Photographed by Robert Schlosser.  Limited Edition, one of 1000 copies issued.  Hardcover, 12 x 19ΒΌ inches, in dark blue cloth with bright, clearly defined gold gilt on cover and backstrip.  Two tiny, barely noticeable scratches on cover; faintest rub to the corners. Full-color Frontispiece.  A very shallow wave to the flyleaf, half-title page and frontispiece.  A dramatic-looking book, in Near Fine condition.

 

The Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was probably created soon after his death in 1400, and is the most famous English literary manuscript to survive from the Middle Ages.  The presentation of the text is ingenious and painstaking, involving carefully planned illuminations, page design, glosses and portraits of all the pilgrim-storytellers. This full-size monochromatic facsimile was created from the same transparencies used to produce The New Ellesmere Chaucer (1995), a full-size, full-color facsimile. $200