Chaucer's Early Modern Readers: Reception in Print and Manuscript

This book explores how Chaucer's medieval manuscripts were received in the early modern period, focusing on fifteenth-century manuscripts. It argues that patterns in reader interventions reflect print conventions and convey preoccupations about Chaucer's antiquity, accuracy, completeness, and author figure. It provides new insights into the interactions between manuscripts and print, sustaining manuscript culture and offering scholarly perspectives to medievalists, early modernists, and historians of the book.

Format: Hardback
Length: 300 pages
Publication date: 22 June 2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

This groundbreaking work is the first comprehensive examination of the early modern reception of Chaucer's medieval manuscripts. Primarily focusing on fifteenth-century manuscripts, it delves into the ways in which these volumes were read, utilized, valued, and transformed during the poet's ascendancy in print. Through a series of engaging chapters, the book argues that the patterns observed in the material interventions made by readers in their manuscripts, such as correcting, completing, supplementing, and authorizing, reflect the conventions that circulated in print and convey prevailing concerns about Chaucer during the period. These interventions shed light on the antiquity and accuracy of his words, the completeness of individual texts and the canon, and the author's own persona.

What makes this evidence particularly compelling is its unexpected nature, challenging prevailing notions about the relationship between fifteenth-century manuscripts and their early modern counterparts. It asserts the pivotal role of print in sustaining manuscript culture, offering fresh scholarly perspectives to medievalists, early modernists, and historians of the book.

Moreover, this title is available as open access on Cambridge Core, further expanding its accessibility and impact. Whether one is a scholar of medieval literature, early modern studies, or the history of the book, this title is a valuable resource for exploring the intricate interplay between Chaucer's manuscripts and their early modern analogues.

ISBN-13: 9781009231114