Chaucer | The Workes, 1598, first Speght edition

Geoffrey Chaucer

The workes of our antient and lerned English poet..., newly printed. In this impression you shall find these additions: 1 His portraiture and progenie shewed. 2 His life collects ed. 3 Arguments to euery booke gathered. 4 Old and obscure words explaned. 5 Author by him cited, declared. 6 Difficulties opened. 7 Two bookes of his neuer before printed. London: [printed by Adam Islip] for George Bishop, 1598

First Speght edition, folio (309 x 204 mm), gothic type, text in two columns, title-page with woodcut border (see catalogue note), 3 further divisional titles with woodcut borders, large woodcut of Chaucer's arms, full-page engraved plate ("The Progenie of Geffrey Chaucer") by John Speed, bound opposite b1 (mis-signed c1), woodcut vignette at the head of The Knight's Tale, contemporary English calf boards, stubs of green silk ties, loss of top corner of N1 (affecting several letters), 2D2-3 stained, loss of lower corner of 4A5 (affecting part of catchword), rebacked and recornered

This edition was edited by Thomas Speght assisted by John Stowe, Francis Thynne, Francis Beaumont (the elder) and Robert Glover. Notable for the introduction of the gloassary, it was the most recent Chaucer edition available during the period when Shakespeare was adapting Chaucer's Troilus to create Troilus and Cressida (1601-2). There are various settings of the title, some with a different woodcut border, and with slightly different imprints. That of the present copy contains the Nicholas Hilliard compartment (dated 1574) with vine-entwined columns.

PROVENANCE:

"John Ingilby": early modern ownership inscription to outer margin of 3g6v; purchased by Kenneth Rapoport from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York on 22 September 1977: bookplate and loosely inserted purchase note, sold Swann Galleries, 13 October 2022, lot 175

LITERATURE:

STC 5077; Pforzheimer 177; Langland to Wither 43; ESTC S107208