Edited by Thomas Speght, 1598

CHAUCER, Geoffrey (c.1343-1400). The Workes of our Antient and Learned English Poet, Geffrey Chaucer, newly Printed. London: Adam Islip for Thomas Wight, 1598.

First Speght edition of Chaucer's works, which helped establish Chaucer in the canon of English literature. It was edited by Thomas Speght, with the assistance of John Stowe, Francis Thynne, Francis Beaumont the Elder, and Robert Glover. “Speght’s Chaucer is inescapably a Renaissance Chaucer ... it is Speght who not only furthered the identification of Chaucer with a collected oeuvre, but also first applied the critical apparatus of humanist editions to a Middle English writer” (Machan). Other copies of this edition have the imprint reading "Printed by Adam Islip at the charges of Bonham Norton" or "Impensis Geor. Bishop." Pforzheimer suggests Bishop, Norton, and Wight commissioned Islip to print the edition and copies were shared out between the three backers; this seems to be the rarest of the three. Pforzheimer 177; Raymo 4; STC 5079. See Machan, “Speght’s Works and the Invention of Chaucer,” 1996.

Folio (311 x 196mm). Title in woodcut border, engraved portrait of Chaucer by John Speed, 3 division titles in woodcut borders, woodcut of a knight at head of text (some dampstaining at ends, worming worse at end; small marginal repairs throughout, in one case affecting text; end of last gathering a little soiled with some repairs with lose of text). 19th-century paneled calf to style, yellow edges (a little worn at extremities). Provenance: illegible inscription on title – bookplate on title verso (armorial, "haec sunt caesaris illa iovis").

This lot was previously illustrated with an incorrect image of the binding.