Books

The fourth edition of Chaucer's collected works, and the definitive edition edited by the great William Thynne, Henry VIII's custodian and hunter of Chaucerian manuscripts. According to Sydney Lazarus Lee, Victorian scholar of early modern English poetry, "Thynne was the first genuine editor of Chaucer, and deserves the gratitude and respect of every student of the poet. He was unable to distinguish between the genuine and spurious work of his author, but he printed a better text of the Canterbury Tales than had been given before, and he included for the first time Chaucer's Legende, Boece, Blanche, Pity, Astrolabe, and Stedfastness." This undated (but circa 1550) edition was probably printed by Nicholas Hill, and publication was shared by four London publishers, William Bonham, Richard Kele, Robert Toye, and Thomas Petit. Each of these four variants bore a different colophon. The Petit variant (the present book) is the scarcest, with 12 known copies in institutional libraries (per ESTC). Our copy is complete with tantalizing evidence of ownership and original purchase price though 17 leaves may have been supplied from another copy. Expertly rebound in period style in full smooth calf over wooden boards. In all an agreeable, wide-margined copy of a work often lacking leaves and in tatters. Provenance: Numerous contemporary custodial manuscript remarks to title, including a remark that a certain Edward Coombes bought the book from Thomas Lainbard, plus slightly later mottoes in Latin expressing personal misgivings about the nature of love and fortune. Folio in eights, 310 x 215 x 65 mm. A8 B-V6 X4 2A-3Q6; [8], cxciii, cxciii-cc, ccii-ccvii, ccx-cclxxi, cclxxiii-cclxxvii, cclxxix-ccclv, [1] f. Full modern calf in period style. Interior: 17 leaves supplied from another copy, A3-4 and 3O1-Q1; these supplied leaves are dampstained with scattered worm holes (no tracks) and chipping to margins, but remainder of book (~98%) remarkably clean and bright. Scattered minor stains, marginal tears, and soiling as described. A pair of scissors was evidently trapped in the volume; a faint klecksographic ghost of rust in the shape of the instrument appears at f.xxxvi. Pforzheimer 174; ESTC S107205; STC 5073.