The Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer. newly printed, with divers addicions, whiche were neuer in printe before: with the siege and destruccion of the worthy citee of Thebes, compiled by Jhon Lidgate, Monke of Berie. As in the table more plainly dooeth appere. Vertue florisheth in Chaucer still, Though death of hym, hath wrought his will.

CHAUCER, GEOFFREY.

Published by [Colophon:] Imprinted at London, by Ihon Kyngston, for Ihon Wight, dwellyng in Poules Churchyarde. Anno. 1561.

About this Item

[10 leaves], ccclxxviij numbered leaves, folio. Title with Chaucer s coat of arms dated 1560, "The Caunterburie tales" and "The romaunt of the rose" each with separate divisional titles within elaborate woodcut borders; the general title and the following two leaves expertly remargined well clear of text, a couple of slight marginal tears repaired on the last couple of leaves which are also a little soiled. A discreetly washed and pressed copy in handsome late Victorian full brown morocco by Riviere, covers ruled in blind and gilt with a large central gilt lozenge, spine fully gilt, g.e.; a few very minor scuffs. First John Stowe edition, the state without the woodcut illustrations to the "Prologues"; this is now considered the first appearance of the book, with recent scholarship suggesting that the woodcut blocks were discovered after the first run of the preliminary leaves was printed. This edition has been described as "doubtless the Chaucer that was studied by Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser and at least leafed through by the young Shakespeare" (The Book of Geoffrey Chaucer, (1963), p. 24). In addition to "The Caunterburie Tales", it includes "The Romaunt of the Rose", "Troilus and Creseide", "Boecius de Consolacione" and "The Testament of Love". There are also new additions to this 1561 text but, the Pforzheimer catalogue notes, "the majority of the pieces added by Stowe to this, his first edition, are spurious. Many occur in Trinity College Cambridge Codex R3, 19, which may have been Stowe s source." Although the 1561 Chaucer is not an especially rare book, complete copies have become elusive. The present copy is an unusually attractive example, albeit restored and rebound. The work by Riviere is in his best and most conservative style, preceding the addition of "& Son" to the firm's name in 1881. STC 5076; see also Grolier, Langland to Wither, 42 and Pforzheimer Catalogue 176, both of which discuss the illustrated and unillustrated states of this book. For a discussion of the priority of this state without the illustrations, see David R. Carlson, "The Woodcut Illustrations in Early Printed Editions of Chaucer s Canterbury Tales", in Chaucer Illustrated: Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales, 2003. Seller Inventory # 14206

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer. newly ...

Publisher: [Colophon:] Imprinted at London, by Ihon Kyngston, for Ihon Wight, dwellyng in Poules Churchyarde. Anno. 1561.

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition