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Harley MS. 7334
Harley MS 7334, sometimes known as the Harley Manuscript, is a mediaeval manuscript of Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'' held in the Harleian Collection of the British Library. It was formerly used as a base text for modern editions of the ''Tales'', following the examples of Thomas Wright, who used it as the basis for his 1847 edition, and W. W. Skeat, who felt it gave authoritative variant readings. Description The Harley MS was likely produced in a London workshop within a decade of Chaucer's death, and is therefore one of the earliest extant Chaucer manuscripts. It has some decoration in red, blue, pink and green, with gold leaf used on borders and initials, and like the Ellesmere Manuscript represents a commission for a wealthy patron (the style of the decoration is very similar to that seen in Ellesmere, perhaps indicating that the same limner worked on both).Thaisen, J. "The Trinity Gower D Scribe's Two ''Canterbury Tales'' Manuscripts Revisited", in Mooney & Connolly, ''Des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in public service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament, having been elected as Knight of the shire, shire knight for Kent. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', ''Troilus and Criseyde'', and ''Parlement of Foules''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman Fren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Hoccleve
Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (1368/69–1426) was a key figure in 15th-century Middle English literature, significant for promoting Chaucer as "the father of English literature", and as a poet in his own right. His poetry, especially his longest work, the didactic work ''Regement of Princes'', was extremely popular in the fifteenth century, but went largely ignored until the late twentieth century, when it was re-examined by scholars, particularly John Burrow. Today he is most well known for his ''Series'', which includes the earliest autobiographical description of mental illness in English, and for his extensive scribal activity. Three holographs of his poetry have survived, and he also copied literary manuscripts by other writers. As a clerk of the Office of the Privy Seal, he wrote hundreds of documents in French and Latin. Biography Hoccleve was born in 1368, as he states when writing in 1421 (''Dialogue, 1.246'') that he has seen "fifty wyntir and three". Nothing is known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literary Illuminated Manuscripts
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed.; see also Homer. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. Literary criticism is one of the oldest academic disciplines, and is concerned with the literary merit or intellectual significance of specific texts. The study of books and other texts as artifacts or traditions is instead encompassed by textual criticism or the history of the book. "Literature", as an art form, is sometimes used synonymously with literary fiction, fiction written with the goal of artistic merit, but can also include works in various non-fiction genres, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photocopier
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers use a technology called '' xerography'', a dry process that uses electrostatic charges on a light-sensitive photoreceptor to first attract and then transfer toner particles (a powder) onto paper in the form of an image. The toner is then fused onto the paper using heat, pressure, or a combination of both. Copiers can also use other technologies, such as inkjet, but xerography is standard for office copying. Commercial xerographic office photocopying gradually replaced copies made by verifax, photostat, carbon paper, mimeograph machines, and other duplicating machines. Photocopying is widely used in the business, education, and government sectors. While there have been predictions that photocopiers will eventually become obsol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tale Of Gamelyn
''The Tale of Gamelyn'' is a Chivalric romance, romance written in c. 1350 in a dialect of Middle English, considered part of the Matter of England.Cartlidge, Neil and DS Brewer. ''Boundaries in medieval romance'', 2008, , 9781843841555. pp. 29–42. It is presented in a style of rhymed couplets and described by Skeat as "the older and longer kind of ballad" and by Ramsey as a "rough and ready romance."Knight, Stephen, and Thomas H. Ohlgren. “The Tale of Gamelyn: Introduction.” ''Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales'' (1997). Print. This 900-line romance is set during the reign of King Edward I and tells the story of Gamelyn, and the various obstacles he must overcome in order to retrieve his rightful inheritance from his older brother. The tale confronts the corruption of the law, illuminating a lack of moral and political consistency. There is no indication as to where exactly this story takes place, given that the text itself has no place names, and Gamelyn's family name of Bou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hengwrt Manuscript
The Hengwrt Chaucer manuscript is an early-15th-century manuscript of the ''Canterbury Tales'', held in the National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth. It is an important source for Chaucer's text, and was possibly written by someone with access to an original authorial holograph, now lost. The ''Hengwrt Chaucer'' is part of a collection called the Peniarth Manuscripts which is included by UNESCO in its UK Memory of the World Register, a list of documentary heritage which holds cultural significance specific to the UK. It is catalogued as National Library of Wales MS Peniarth 392D. Following the terminology developed by John M. Manly and Edith Rickert, the manuscript is conventionally referred to as Hg in most editions giving variant readings.See Manly and Rickert, ''The Text of the Canterbury Tales, I: Descriptions of the Manuscripts'', 1940, p.266 History of the manuscript The Hengwrt Chaucer has been in Wales for at least 400 years. This was one of the collection of manuscrip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county to the north, Warwickshire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south, and Herefordshire to the west. The city of Worcester, England, Worcester is the largest settlement and the county town. The county is largely rural, and has an area of and a population of 592,057. After Worcester (103,872) the largest settlements are Redditch (87,036), Kidderminster (57,400), and Bromsgrove (34,755). It contains six local government Non-metropolitan district, districts, which are part of a two-tier non-metropolitan county also called Worcestershire County Council, Worcestershire. The county Historic counties of England, historically had Evolution of Worcestershire county boundaries since 1844, complex boundaries, and included Dudley an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piers Plowman
''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative verse divided into sections called (Latin for "step"). Like the Pearl Poet's '' Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'', ''Piers Plowman'' is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest works of English literature of the Middle Ages, preceding and even influencing Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. ''Piers Plowman'' contains the first known reference to a literary tradition of Robin Hood tales. There exist three distinct versions of the poem, which scholars refer to as the A-, B-, and C-texts. The B-text is the most widely edited and translated version; it revises and extends the A-text by over four thousand lines. There is also a Z text of Piers Plowman, discovered in the 1980s. The Z-text is composed of elements from the A and C ver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gower
John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works—the ''Mirour de l'Omme'', ''Vox Clamantis'', and ''Confessio Amantis—''three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes. Life Few details are known of Gower's early life. He was probably born into a family which held properties in Kent and Kentwell Hall, Suffolk.Lee, Sidney (1890). "wikisource:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gower, John, Gower, John". In ''Dictionary of National Biography''. 22. London. pp. 299-304. Stanley and Smith use a Confessio Amantis#Language, linguistic argument to conclude that "Gower’s formative years were spent partly in Kent and partly in Suffolk". Southern and Nicolas conclude that the Gower family of Kent and Suffolk cannot be related to the Yorkshire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confessio Amantis
''Confessio Amantis'' ("The Lover's Confession") is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. According to its prologue, it was composed at the request of Richard II. It stands with the works of Chaucer, Langland, and the Pearl poet as one of the great works of late 14th-century English literature. The Index of Middle English Verse shows that in the era before the printing press it was one of the most-often copied manuscripts (59 copies) along with '' Canterbury Tales'' (72 copies) and '' Piers Plowman'' (63 copies). In genre it is usually considered a poem of consolation, a medieval form inspired by Boethius' '' Consolation of Philosophy'' and typified by works such as ''Pearl''. Despite this, it is more usually studied alongside other tale collections with similar structures, such as the '' Decameron'' of Boccaccio, and particular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adam Pinkhurst
Adam Pinkhurst is best known as a fourteenth-century English scribe whom Linne Mooney identified as the 'personal scribe' of Geoffrey Chaucer, although much recent scholarship has cast doubt on this connection. Biography There are records of an 'Adam Pynkhurst' (as it is usually spelled) from 1355 to 1399–1401. The earliest is a property sale by Pinkhurst, his wife Joanna, and another married couple in Dorking and Betchworth, Surrey; this suggests that he was probably born sometime in the mid-1330s at the latest. In 1370 Pynkhurst was granted a handsome annuity by King Edward III; this record and subsequent ones identify him as a 'King's Archer', that is, a member of an elite group charged with protecting the king. The 1381 Poll Tax records for Bramley, Surrey, record amounts paid some three times what an average person would have been expected to contribute. Records of 1385 pertaining to the purchase and then sale (back to the previous owner) of a property adjoining the church ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse (poetry), verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held by a group of pilgrims travelling together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The ''Tales'' are widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. They had a major effect upon English literature and may have been responsible for the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French language, French or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer's time, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, William Langland, the Gawain Poet, and Julian of Norwich—also wrote major literary works in English. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was seminal in this evolution of lite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
