Book Club of California, 1963. Hardcover. 1 of 450 copies. "Chaucer is the only major English writer whose publication spans the whole history of English printing. Professor Muscatine's account of the making of Chaucer's writing into books begins in the age of the illuminated manuscript and culminates with the superb Kelmscott edition printed by William Morris in 1896. It treats the great early English printers Caxton, Pynson, and Wynkyn de Worde; the obscure but prolific commercial publishers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; Tonson and Lintot in the eighteenth; and the Whittingtons, Pickering, and Morris in the nineteenth ... In an authoritative but lively text, Professor Muscatine describes the books themselves, the changing conventions of typography, the book trade, the relations between printers and publishers, the contributions of successive editors, ant the problem of providing an accurate text. He also gives the first complete account of the woodcut illustrations in the early editions" (prospectus). Includes an original leaf from the 1561 edition of Chaucer's 'Works.' Prospectus laid in. Red cloth boards with gilt title to spine and gilt illustration to front board. White paint markings to front board. Lengthy penned gift inscription to front free endpaper with book plate of Paul Vincent Balassone. Color frontispiece. Includes many facsimile illustrations. 64 pages. Size: Thin folio. BOB/021323. Very Good.

Item #36388

Price: $75.00