Books

Unique copy. Number 5 of 12 copies printed on vellum, from a total edition of 512. 3 volumes, 4to. Full brown calf by Bumpus of Oxford, spines with raised bands, gilt titles, spines and boards tooled in blind in a mediaeval diaper designed with blind tooled symbols; inner dentelles tooled in blind; all edges gilt. Illustrated title pages and 30 color plates by Flint. A fine set. All dropped capitals have been embellished by hand in color or gold, 44 colored, 29 illuminated in gold. Nine full page decorations in mediaeval style by an unknown but utterly competent calligrapher, one to introduce each tale. All color plates have been laid down onto thick paper with captions added by hand, with their capitals added in gold. A scarce vellum edition now a unique copy in the Bumpus binding and illuminations. .

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400.