Ellesmere Manuscript in Huntington Library

The Ellesmere Chaucer, or Ellesmere Manuscript of the Canterbury Tales, is an early 15th-century

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

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 w ...

's ''

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 storytellin ...

'', owned by the

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington and Arabella Huntington in San Marino, California, United State ...

, in

San Marino, California San Marino is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. At the 2020 United States census the population was 12,513, a decline from the 2010 United States census. History Origin of name Th ...

(EL 26 C 9). It is considered one of the most significant copies of the ''Tales''.

History

Chaucer scholarship has long assumed that no manuscripts of the ''Tales'' exist dating from earlier than Chaucer's death in 1400. The Ellesmere manuscript, conventionally dated to the first decades of the fifteenth century, would therefore be one of the first extant manuscripts of the ''Tales''. More recently, the manuscript has been dated to c. 1405 or earlier, leading to speculation that it "was conceived as an immediate response to Chaucer's death by those eager to commemorate his memory through the appropriate preservation of his work."Edwards, A.S.G. "The Ellesmere manuscript: controversy, culture and the Canterbury Tales." ''Essays and Studies'', vol. 2010, annual 2010, pp. 59+. It has even been suggested that, while the final sentence of the manuscript ("Here is ended the Book of the Tales of Canterbury, compiled by Geffrey Chaucer, of whos soule Iesu Crist have mercy. Amen.") makes it clear that Chaucer had died by the time the manuscript was ''finished'', Ellesmere could have been begun while the poet was still alive. The early history of the manuscript is uncertain, but it seems to have been owned by

John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford (23 April 1408 – 26 February 1462), was the son of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford (1385? – 15 February 1417), and his second wife, Alice Sergeaux (1386–1452). A Lancastrian loyalist during the lat ...

(1408–1462). The manuscript takes its popular name from the fact that it later belonged to Sir Thomas Egerton (1540–1617), Baron Ellesmere and Viscount Brackley, who apparently obtained it from Roger North, 2nd Baron North (1530/31–1600). The library of manuscripts, known as the

Bridgewater Library The Bridgewater Library was a family library, "the oldest large family collection in England to survive intact into modern times". The library was begun by Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley at Tatton Park in Cheshire, and added to by his son ...

, remained at the Egerton house,

Ashridge Ashridge is a Estate (land), country estate and stately home in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, about north of Berkhamsted and north west of London. The estate comprises ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, until 1802 when it was removed to London. Francis Egerton, created Earl of Ellesmere in 1846, inherited the library, and it remained in the family until its sale to Henry Huntington by John Francis Granville Scrope Egerton (1872–1944), 4th Earl of Ellesmere. Huntington purchased the Bridgewater library privately in 1917 through

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

. The manuscript is now in the collection of the

(EL 26 C 9). It was published in facsimile in 1911, then reproduced again in colour in 1995. Because the manuscript was in the Bridgewater Library for centuries, early scholars working on Chaucer's works were unaware of its existence and it was not consulted for any early editions of the ''Tales''. It first came to public notice following its description in 1810; the text was not available until 1868, when it was edited by F. J. Furnivall. W. W. Skeat's 1894 edition of the ''Tales'' was the first to use Ellesmere as the basis for its text.

Description

The Ellesmere manuscript is a highly polished example of scribal workmanship, with a great deal of elaborate illumination and, notably, a series of illustrations of the various narrators of the ''Tales'' (including a famous one of Chaucer himself, mounted on a horse). The manuscript is written on 240 high-quality parchment leaves of approximately in size.

Illuminations

Owing to the quality of its decoration and illustrations, Ellesmere is the most frequently reproduced Chaucer manuscript. In order of appearance in the Ellesmere Chaucer (note that not all storytellers have an illumination): *

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

(fol. 10r) *

Miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

(fol. 34v) * Reeve (fol. 42r) *

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

(fol. 47r) *

Man of Law "The Man of Law's Tale" is the fifth of the ''Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer, written around 1387. John Gower's "Tale of Constance" in ''Confessio Amantis'' tells the same story and may have been a source for Chaucer. Nicholas Trivet's ...

(fol. 50v) * Wife of Bath (fol. 72r) *

Friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

(fol. 76v) * Summoner (fol. 81r) * Clerk of Oxford (fol. 88r) *

Merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

(fol. 102v) *

Squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Boys served a knight as an attendant, doing simple but important tasks such as saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour. Terminology ''Squire'' ...

(fol. 115v) * Franklin (fol. 123v) *

Physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

(fol. 133r) * Pardoner (fol. 138r) * Shipman (fol. 143v) * Prioress (fol. 148v) *

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 ...

(fol. 153v) * Monk and his greyhounds (fol. 169r) * Nun's Priest (fol. 179r) * Second Nun (fol. 187r) * Canon's Yeoman (fol. 194r) * Manciple (fol. 203r) *

Parson A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches. It is no longer a formal term d ...

(fol. 206v)

Scribe and its relation to other manuscripts

The Ellesmere manuscript is thought to be very early in date, being written shortly after Chaucer's death. It is seen as an important source for efforts to reconstruct Chaucer's original text and intentions, though John M. Manly and Edith Rickert in their ''Text of the Canterbury Tales'' (1940) noted that whoever edited the manuscript probably made substantial revisions, tried to regularise spelling, and put the individual Tales into a smoothly running order. Up until this point the Ellesmere manuscript had been used as the 'base text' by several editions, such as that of W. W. Skeat, with variants checked against British Library, Harley MS 7334. The manuscript is believed to have been written by a single scribe, the same scribe who wrote the Hengwrt Manuscript of the ''Tales.'' The scribe has been identified as Adam Pinkhurst, a man employed by Chaucer himself; however, the attribution is controversial, with many palaeographers remaining undecided for or against. If the scribe was employed by Chaucer directly, this would imply that the reconstructions hypothesized by Manly and Rickert were carried out by someone who had worked with Chaucer, knew his intentions for the ''Tales'', and had access to draft materials. The Ellesmere manuscript is conventionally referred to as El in studies of the ''Tales'' and their textual history. A facsimile edition is available. File:Chaucer knight.jpg, Image:Wife-of-Bath-ms.jpg, File:Ellesmere Chaucer, mssEL 26 C 9, folio 153v color enhanced.jpg, File:Friar-canterbury-tales.jpg, File:Canterbury Tales - The Miller - f. 34v detail - Robin with the Bagpype - early 1400s Chaucer.png, File:Chaucer cook.jpg, File:The Summoner - Ellesmere Chaucer.jpg,

References

External links

The Ellesmere mss
at the

Huntington catalogue images of Ellesmere Chaucer at Digital Scriptorium

Full digital facsimile on the Huntington Digital Library
{{Authority control Literary illuminated manuscripts The Canterbury Tales Collection of the Huntington Library English-language manuscripts