Oak Knoll

NOTE: THIS IS FOR THE PROSPECTUS ONLY.

The original book was limited to 450 copies (Leaf Book - Chalmers 128 & 140).

Designed and printed by Lawton Kennedy. An account of the publication of Chaucer's works over a period of more than five hundred years, from his own day to modern times. The author describes the books themselves, the changing conventions of typography, the book trade, the relations between printers and publishers, the contributions of successive editors, and the problem of providing an accurate text. He also gives the first complete account of the woodcut illustrations in the early editions. Many illustrations, including an original leaf from the 1561 edition of Chaucer's WORKS. With additions by John Stow, printed by John Kingston for John Wight and Henry Bradshaw.

Harlan writes: "This description and analysis of the several manuscript and printed editions of Chaucer's masterpiece has become something of a classic in its own right. A notice in the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, in commending the matching of the skill of the printer and the erudition of the author, concluded by raising in general the standards of scholarship and book publication of the Club which it describes as equal to the best in the Americas. Included in the Exhibition of Western Books (Rounce & Coffin Club)."


Charles Muscatine was an American academic specializing in medieval literature, particularly Chaucer; his work transformed Chaucer studies by turning attention to the French models for Chaucer's poetry.