Male : The first great English Poet, the father of English Poetry (Dryden). Married Philippa de Roet c 1366. Page at court to Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster. Squire and apprentice knight serving in France with Edward III. Controller of the Wool Custom in London 1374-86. In Parliament as Knight of Kent. Royal Clerk of Works under Richard II. Buried in Westminster Abbey

Nationality : English Place of Birth : London

Date of Birth : 1343-4 Date of Death : 1400 Age : 56-7

Education : Oxford or Cambridge ?

The Canterbury Tales
[Set down in the 1390's, the tales constitute 24 stories supposedly recounted by a band of chattering
pilgrims as they travel from London to the Becket shrine at Canterbury. When Chaucer died he
hadn't completed the tales or the journey to Canterbury.
The first edition was sold to John Paul Getty at auction in July 1998 for £4.6m,
making it the most expensive printed book in history. There are only 9 other
copies of this work, all in institutional libraries]
(1477 Wm Caxton) (1482 Caxton. 2nd Ed) (1492 Richard Pynson) (1498 Wynkyn de Worde)
(1532 Francis Thynne)

18thC
(1721 John Urry) - first edition in Roman type
(1741 Tonson) - 3 vols
(1775-8 T Payne, London) - notes by Thomas Tyrwhitt - 4 vols (1798 2nd Ed - 2 vols)
(1798 Clarendon Press, Oxford) - 2 vols

19thC
(1822 Pickering & Prowett, London £2. 12/6) - 5 vols
Offered for £350 in 1998
(1847-51 Percy Society) - 3 vols. Edited by Thomas Wright
(1857 from text with notes & glossary of Thomas Tyrwhitt)
(1868-77 Chaucer Society) - Edited by Frederick J Furnivall
(1885 Chaucer Society) - Harleian MS 7334. Edited by F J Furnivall
(1894 OUP) - edited by W W Skeat
Works (1896) - Edward Burne-Jones
(1898 Macmillan) - edited by A W Pollard

20thC
(1911 Manchester UP) - 2 vols.
(1913 Philip Lee Warner, Medici Society, London) - 3 vols. 512 sets - W Russell Flint
Offered in 1998 for £900
(1928 London) - W Russell Flint
(1929-31 Golden Cockerel Press) - 4 vols. 485 sets. Eric Gill
(1930 Covici Friede) - Rockwell Kent. 2 vols. Ltd Ed 999 sets signed
(1933 OUP) - edited by F N Robinson
(1934 Ltd Eds Club, London) - 1500 signed by George W Jones. 3 vols
(1934 Garden City Publ, NY) - Rockwell Kent
(1935 Harrap) - Rockwell Kent
The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (1949 Birmingham School of Printing) - Maurice Askew
(1956 Folio Society, London) - 2 vols. Edna Whyte
(1972 Waddington Gallery) - 300. Elizabeth Frink
The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (1978 Circle Press) - 250 signed by Ronald Kingf
[Filmed in 1971]
-------
15th & 16thC
The Collected Works
(1532 Thomas Godfray) - Edited by William Thynne
(1542 Wyllyam Bonham)- Edited by William Thynne
(1561 Jhon Kyngston for Jhon Wight) - Edited by William Thynne
(1598 Impnesis Geor. Bishop) - Edited by Thomas Speght. J Speede
(1602 Adam Islip) - Edited by Thomas Speght. J Speede
(1687 London. 8th Ed)
Offered in 1998 for £595

18thC
The Works (1721 Bernard Lintot, London) - Edited by John Urry

19thC
The Riches of Chaucer (1835 Effingham Wilson, London) - 2 vols
The Poems (1841 Whittaker, London)
The Poetical Works (1845 Wm Pickering, Aldine Poets) - 6 vols
Romaunt of the Rose, Troilus & Creseide and the Minor Poems (1846 Wm Pickering) - 3 vols
The Poetical Works (1852 Pickering) - 6 vols
The Poetical Works, with Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas (1866 Bell & Daldy : Aldine Edition) - 6 vols
The Poetical Works (1868 Routledge) - notes & glossary by Thomas Tyrwhitt
A Treaty on the Astrolabe (1872 EETS, London)
The Complete Works (1894-7 Clarendon Press) - 7 vols. edited by Walter Skeat
The Works (1896 Kelmscott Press) - 425. Edward Burne-Jones

20thC
The Parlement of Foules (1904 Houghton Mifflin, Boston) - 325
Complete Poetical Works (1912 Macmillan, London & NY) - Warwick Goble
Troilus & Criseyde (1927 Golden Cockerel Press) - Eric Gill 225
The Works (1928 Shakespeare Head Press) - 375. 8 vols
Offered in 1991 for £1000
+ 11 Numbered 8 vol sets on vellum
Troilus and Criseyde (1932 Literary Guild, NY) - Eric Gill
The Complete Works (1933 Boston & NY) - edited by F N Robinson
Troilus & Cressida (1939 George S Jones, London for the Ltd Eds Club) - 1500 signed by Printer
Troilus & Cressida (1939 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - 1500 signed by George W Jones
The Nun Priest's Tale (1950 Allen & Richard Lane) - Decorations by Lynton Lamb 1000
The Boke of the Duchesse (1954 Anvil Press, Lexington) - 225
The Works : Facsimile of the Kelmscott Chaucer (1958 World, Cleveland) - Edward Burne Jones
Offered in 1999 for £250
ABC : Called la priere de Notre Dame (1967 Grabhorn-Hoyem, SF) - 1000
The Works (1974 Basilisk Press, London & Ipswich) - 2 vols. 515. Facsimile of Kelmscott Edition

READING
William Godwin : The Life of William Chaucer (1803 Davison for Richard Phillips) - 2 vols
(1804 Davison for Phillips. 2nd Ed) - 4 vols
Eleanor P Hammond : Chaucer - A Bibliographic Manual (1908 Macmillan, NY)
J S P Tatlock & A G Kennedy : A Concordance to the Complete Works (1927 Carnegie Inst, US)
Robert French : Chaucer Handbook (1927 Crofts US)
G K Chesterton : Chaucer (1932 Faber)
Fr Vincent McNabb : Geoffrey Chaucer - A Study in Genius and Ethics
(1934 St Dominic's Press, Ditchling) - 300 numbered
Marchette Chute : Geoffrey Chaucer of England (1946 Dutton US) (1951 Hale)
Nevil Coghill : The Poet Chaucer (1949 OUP)
Marchette Chute : Geoffrey Chaucer of England (1951 Robert Hale)
Derek S Brewer : Chaucer (1953 Longmans)
F E Halliday : Chaucer and His World (1968 Thames & Hudson)
Derek Pearsall : The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer (1992 Blackwell)
Lillian M Bisson : Chaucer and the Late Nedieval World (1998 Macmillan £30)
Richard West : Chaucer 1340-1400 - The Life & times of the First English Poet (2000 Constable £20)
Terry Jones et al : Who Murdered Chaucer ? (2003 Methuen £20)