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The works of Geoffrey Chaucer now newly imprinted.
Kislak Center for Special Collections - Rare Book Collection Portfolio EC C3933 896w
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Kislak Center for Special Collections - Rare Book Collection Portfolio PR1850 1896 copy 1
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- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400.
- Standardized Title:
- Works. 1896
- Language:
- English
- Penn Provenance:
- Burr, Charles W. (Charles Walts), 1861-1944 (donor) (copy 1)
- Morris, William, 1834-1896 (autograph) (inscription) (copy 1)
- N., S. (inscription) (copy 1)
- Houston, Samuel Frederic, 1866-1952 (autograph, 1898) (donor) (copy 2)
- Physical Description:
- ii pages, 2 unnumbered pages, 554 pages : illustrations ; 44 cm
- Other Title:
- Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
- Chaucer's works
- Title from colophon : Book of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer
- Place of Publication:
- Hammersmith : Printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, 1896.
- Notes:
- "Here ends the Book of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by F.S. Ellis; ornamented with pictures designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and engraved on wood by W.H. Hooper. Printed by me, William Morris, at the Kelmscott Press, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, in the county of Middlesex. Finished on the 8th day of May, 1896. The hearty thanks of the editor and printer are due to the Reverend Professor Skeat for kindly allowing the use of his emendations to the Ellesmere mss. of the Canterbury tales, and also of his emended texts of Chaucer's other writings"--Colophon.
- With half-title.
- Printed in double columns in Chaucer and Troy types, in red and black; with woodcut borders, initials and woodcut illustrations. Title page and 1st page of each work within ornamental woodcut borders.
- With side- and shoulder-notes in red.
- "Besides Burne-Jones' eighty-seven pictures, it contains a full-page woodcut title, fourteen large borders, eighteen borders or frames for the pictures, and twenty-six large initial words. All of these, besides the ornamental initial letters large and small, were designed by Morris himself"--The life of William Morris by J.W. Mackail, v. 2, p. 326.
- Edition of 425 copies, 13 vellum copies. Cf. Peterson.
- According to Peterson (p. xxvii), the text of the Tales was based on the Ellesmere ms. as published in A six-text print of Chaucer's Canterbury tales, ed. F.J. Furnivall (1866-77); copy text for the other works was W.W. Skeat's ed. of The complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1894).
- Issued in box.
- Local Notes:
- Copy 1 bound in full red morocco extra, with blind tooled bands extending from the sides across the back; with the title lettered in gilt down the front cover; five raised bands on spine, with gold stamped title and imprint on two panels; gold ornamental turn-ins; marbled endpapers. Housed in half niger box case.
- Copy 1: with a tiny drawing of an initial "E" designed for the Kelmscott Press by William Morris laid in.
- Copy 1 also with: a full page prospectus of the work - a presentation copy from William Morris signed by him; six small annoucements from the Kelmscott Press; a clipping from binding notice; two ms. notes about this copy; a typewritten description of the book.
- Copy 1 given to the University of Pennsylvania by Charles W. Burr on May 1, 1938. Formerly in the Getz Collection, with the monogram MEG on the box case.
- Copy 2 bound in quarter linen.
- Copy 2 given to the University of Pennsylvania by Samuel Frederic Houston, September 1950. With Houston's autograph in pencil, dated 1898, on half-title.
- Cited in:
- Peterson, W.S. Kelmscott Press, A40
- Scott, T. Morris, p. 105
- Sparling, H.H. Kelmscott, p. 162, no. 40
- OCLC:
- 3918567
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