Publisher's Synopsis
This catalogue is the first attempt to describe all existing Chaucer manuscripts. It takes note of recent textual and linguistic scholarship on Chaucer, and offers a fresh and informed assessment of the bibliography of each work. - - This first of two volumes decribes the manuscripts in the assumed order of Chaucer's composition: - Book of the Duchess; Romaunt of the Rose; Hous of Fame; Parlement of Foules; Anelida and Arcite; Boece; Troilus; Legend of Good Women; Treatise on the Astrolabe. - - The introduction to each work records what is known or may be surmised about the date and circumstances of its composition and its early readership. There follow indexes of manuscripts and of inscribed names and owners. Chaucer's portraits in manuscripts and the apocrypha are the subject of appendices. - - The catalogue is designed both as a research tool for scholars interested in the manuscripts and texts of Chaucer, and as a guide to the primary sources for critics who teach and write on Chaucer's work.
