Evening star., 1909-08-31
BOSTOh'S CHAUCER EXHIBIT
PUBLIC LIBRARY'S LARGE COL
LECTION OF CHAUCERIANA.
Loans Made by Librarian of Har'
ward niversity-Facsimile
of First Edition.

From the Boston Transcript.
BY cooperating with Librarian Lane oi
| the Harvard University Library, the Bos-
/ ton Public Library has assembled in lis
| nne arts department probably the largest
collection Of Chaucerana ever brought
| together in this country. The exhibit
will remain for some time, and then
many of the books. prints and facsimies
which make up the exhibition Will be
sent to tine Gloucester Public Library, to
Gloucester pageant of the Canterbury
! pilgrimage.
| The exhibition OF the Boston Public Ii
| brary is arranged in four groups, dealing,
| respectively. with Chaucer's works, early
| lives of Chaucer, etc: editions of Chau-
GERS contemporaries. and manuscripts,
dating approximately from Chaucer' S
| time of works with which he was IA
| miliar; manuscripts and printed copies OF
certain of Chaucer's sources, and pic
| lures. The first division is rich, principal
ly owing to the loans from the Harvard
Library. Here is shown the first col
| lected edition of Chaucer's works. Lon
don, 1872. in facsimile from the copy in
the British Museum. This edition was
edited by Thomas Thrynne. chief clerk of
the kitchen of Henry VIII. The Boston
Public Library has original editions of
Chaucer's works of London. 1895 the
hfth collected edition), and the eighth OF
11o1, the first edition to be printed in
Roman type. From Harvard College
come copies of the second collected edi-
| ton, 1542 the first to contain the Plow-
mans Tale; the third edition. supposed to
have been issued between 15i5 and 1850;
the fourth edition OF 1861, which con-
tains several additions of doubtful au-
thority; the sixth edition of 1862, and
q shown
the masterpiece of the Klemscott Press OF
William Morris, the klemscott Chaucer,
with illustrations after Sir Edward
Burne-Jones. There are two editions of
the Canterbury Tales the Chaucer So
| ciety issue. edited by Furnivall. and the
edition issued by Thomas Tyrwhitt in
London. 1775-177S. There is also fac
simle of the unique copy in the Cam
bridge University Library of ,'.Anelida
| and Arctic probably one of the first
pieces printed by CaXton in Englands
Lives of Chaucer.
Several lives of Chaucer are exhibited,
including that of John Bale issued at
Basle in 1851; John Leand's of Oxford,
1903, and that of John Pits of Paris, 1919.
An interesting item in the second di-
vision is a drawing of the iwenty-three
tellers of the Canterbury Tales. copied
from the original manuscript in the pos
session of the Earl of Ellesmere and
loaned by Harvard College. OF the works
of Chaucer's cotemporaries there are
original copies of John Covers 'Con-
fessione Amantis," the third edition, Lon
don, 1904; William Langland's Vision
of Piers Plowman," the second impress
sion Of the first edition. London, 1850,
and an edition of 1861. from the Harvard
Library; John Lydgate's THE auncent
historic and only true and syncere cronicle
of the ware betwiXte the Grecians and
the Troyans" the second edition of 1906;
fifteenth century manuscript OF Ovid S
Opera" and a vellum manuscript of
Ovid's "Epistle' from the Harvard Lii
brary, with Richard Roles prick of
Conscience manuscript of the four
teenth century on velum, from the same
source. There are several other interest
ing manuscripts. printed work of great
interest is Jacobus de Voraignes Golden
Legend" printed at Ulm in 1883. when
the art of printing was in its infancy
Many Manuscripts.
The third division, that of manuscripts
and printed copies of sources of Chaucer's S
works, includes manuscript of Guido dele
Colonne, manuscript medieval sermon
book editions of Boethius, De Con-
solatione. manuscript of Roman de la
Rose fac-simile of reprint of Guillaume
de Guileville's 1.-The Booke of the Pyl-
gremage of the Sowle'' Printed by CaX-
ton A. d. 1883.
The pictures which surround the fine
arts room include not only portraits of
Chaucer and his cotemporaries, but
views of Chaucers England, including the
Pilgrims Way from Winchester to Can
terbury; illustrations of the Canterbury
pilgrims. historical events of Chaucer' 5
times, costumes of the fourteenth CEN
tury, and of tournaments, arms and armor
of the fourteenth ccrtury.