Collection ID: 0028 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Canterbury tales

Authors

• Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400 (http://viaf.org/viaf/100185203/)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

MS 1084/1
(Philadelphia, United States, Rosenbach Museum & Library)

Publisher

Rosenbach Museum & Library

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Origin

Place

England

Summary

This manuscript, written by two scribes in 199 vellum leaves with illuminated initials and border ornament, contains complete versions of fifteen of the tales: Man of Law, Shipman, Prioress, Rime of Sir Thopas, Melibeus, Monk, Nun's Priest, Doctor, Pardoner, Wife of Bath, Friar, Summoner, Clerk, Second Nun and Canon's Yeoman. It lacks the Prologue, the tales of the Miller, Reeve, and Cook and contains incomplete tales of the Knight, Merchant, Squire, Parson, and Gamelyn. One of 57 major surviving 15th century manuscripts of the tales, it is textually related to the Petworth Ms. and Cambridge Ms. Mm 2.5 (Manly and Rickert's group D).

Notes

• Most of folio 84 is torn away.
   
• Paper flyleaves
   
• The 2018 (original) collection reverses what were quire 8 (fols. 44-51) and quire 9 (fols. 52-57)
   

Extent

Vii+199; 300 x 205

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto

Collation

1 (4, +2 +3), 2 (2, +1 +2), 3 (8), 4 (8, -6), 5-6 (8), 7 (7, +1), 8 (8, -1), 9 (8), 10 (2, +1 +2), 11 (8, -8), 12 (2, +1 +2), 13-27 (8), 28 (2, +1 +2), 29 (7, +2), 30 (8); 1882 rebinding: 1 (4, +2 +3), 2 (2, +1 +2), 3 (8), 4 (7, +3), 5 (8), 6 (9, +9), 7 (7, +7), 8 (8), 9 (6), 10 (2, +1 +2), 11 (7, +1), 12 (2, +1 +2), 13-27 (8), 28 (2, +1 +2), 29 (7, +2), 30 (8)

Signatures

Eighteenth-century signatures put in when manuscript was rebound

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

In brown ink and often framed

Binding

Unbound

Layout

Single column of forty lines; frame-ruled in both light brown and rose-coloured ink; incipits and explicits in red ink; marginal headings in red ink, glosses in Man of Law's Tale and Pardoner's Tales, a few in the Parson's Tale; running title in red ink on verso and recto preceded by blue paraphs flourished with red or gold flourished with blue ink; written area: 210 x 110

Decoration

Five-line gold initials with champe sprays on coloured background used for beginnings of tales, three-line initials in same colours for links: Blue, pink, orange and green; paragraph marks are blue alternating with gold for stanzas in Man of Law, Prioress, Monk; also used for glosses and running titles

Script

Gothic--anglicana

Provenance

• On fol. 80v, in the gutter, is the note "This Book | Cost 2d the doing."; Sold to Thorpe at the Richard Heber sale in 1836, who sold the MS to Sir Thomas Phillipps; The Phillipps library sold this and other MSS to A. S. W. Rosenbach in November 1923 (Morris 1988, p. 42)
   

Keywords

• 15th century
• English
• Illumination
• Notable binding
• England
• Literature -- Poetry

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Rosenbach Museum & Library MS 1084/1: Canterbury tales are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, The Rosenbach has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Rosenbach Museum & Library MS 1084/1: Canterbury tales. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — Knight's Tale (incomplete)
• fol. 5r — The Tale of Gamelyn
• fol. 15v — The Shipman's Tale
• fol. 20r — Shipman-Prioress Link
• fol. 20v — The Prioress's Prologue
• fol. 20v — The Prioress's Tale
• fol. 23v — The Monk's Prologue
• fol. 24v — The Monk's Tale
• fol. 34v — Nun's Priest's Prologue
• fol. 35r — Nun's Priest's Tale
• fol. 43r — Man of Law's Tale (line 558 ff)
• fol. 50v — Epilogue of the Man of Law's Tale
• fol. 50v — Prologue of the Squire's Tale
• fol. 50v — Squire's Tale, prima pars (lines 1-91)
• fol. 52r — Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale
• fol. 52r — Man of Law's Prologue
• fol. 52v — The Man of Law's Tale (lines 1-557)
• fol. 58r — Squire's Tale, prima pars (line 92 ff)
• fol. 61r — Squire's Tale, secunda pars (line 347 ff)
• fol. 65r — The Merchant's Tale
• fol. 79r — Wife of Bath's Prologue
• fol. 89v — Wife of Bath's Tale
• fol. 94v — Friar's Prologue
• fol. 95r — Friar's Tale
• fol. 99v — Summoner's Prologue
• fol. 100r — Summoner's Tale
• fol. 106r — Clerk's Prologue
• fol. 106v — Clerk's Tale
• fol. 121r — Prologue of the Second Nun's Tale
• fol. 122v — Second Nun's Tale
• fol. 127v — Canon's Yeoman's Prologue
• fol. 130r — Canon's Yeoman's Tale
• fol. 139v — Physician's Tale
• fol. 143r — 'Host's Words'/'Physician-Pardoner Link'
• fol. 144r — Pardoner's Prologue
• fol. 145v — Pardoner's Tale
• fol. 152r — Prologue to Sir Thopas
• fol. 152r — Sir Thopas
• fol. 154v — 'Thopas-Melibee Link'
• fol. 154v — Illuminated initial N
• fol. 155r — The Tale of Melibee
• fol. 155r — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 175v — 'Squire-Franklin Link'
• fol. 176r — Franklin's Prologue
• fol. 176v — Franklin's Tale
• fol. 185r — Parson's Tale (§ 31 - § 78 partial)

Decorations

• fol. 15v — Illuminated initial N
• fol. 15v — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 20r — Illuminated initial W
• fol. 20v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 23v — Illuminated initial W
• fol. 24v — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 34v — Illuminated initial H
• fol. 35r — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 50v — Illuminated initial O
• fol. 50v — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 52r — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 79r — Illuminated initial E
• fol. 89v — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 94v — Illuminated initial K
• fol. 95r — Illuminated initial W
• fol. 99v — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 100r — Illuminated initial L
• fol. 106r — Illuminated initial S
• fol. 106v — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 108v — Illuminated initial N
• fol. 120v — Illuminated initial G
• fol. 121r — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 122v — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 127v — Illuminated initial W
• fol. 130r — Illuminated initial W
• fol. 139v — Illuminated initial W
• fol. 139v — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 143r — Illuminated initial O
• fol. 144r — Illuminated initial L
• fol. 145v — Colored initial I
• fol. 152r — Illuminated initial W
• fol. 152r — Illuminated initial L
• fol. 175v — Illuminated initial I
• fol. 176r — Illuminated initial T
• fol. 185v — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 192v — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 195v — Illuminated initial A
• fol. 196v — Illuminated initial A