Geffrey Chaucer - The Woorkes - Canterbury Tales - 1538

Chaucer, the father of English literature (and Shakespeare): the birth of a myth
Edition worthy of a king - sold at auction in 2024 - USD 11,970
This edition, descended from William Thynne's princeps (London, 1532), represents the first true consecration of Chaucer as England's national author.
The edition of Chaucer's works probably used by Shakespeare as a source for Troilus and Cressida. Chaucer, described by Caxton as 'the venerable father and first founder and embellisher of the ornate eloquence in our English language,' played an important role in the dissemination of vernacular English as a literary language and, together with Shakespeare, is considered one of the greatest authors of that language.
Magnificent specimen of one of the earliest anthologies of Geoffrey Chaucer's works, the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, printed during the Elizabethan era. The volume consolidates in a single corpus the Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, Parliament of Fowls, and other minor poems, in dense and evocative Gothic typeface, with large woodcut initials and an heraldic frontispiece. The binding, in finely gold-tooled black Moroccan leather from the eighteenth century, testifies to the antiquarian and collecting regard that already in the Georgian age surrounded Chaucer's work, then recognized as the 'Father of English Poetry.'
Market value
The Elizabethan editions of Chaucer's Works are extremely rare on the market. Complete and well-preserved copies of this series (Kele–Kingston–Islip) now fetch between 20,000 and 35,000 euros, depending on the presence of an intact title page, the quality of the paper, and the binding. Examples with distinguished provenance or in Georgian art bindings, like this one, can exceed 40,000 euros at international auctions (Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams).

Physical description and condition
Text in Gothic type on two columns. Title page with large woodcut coat of arms within an ornamental frame, woodcut initials and drop caps, original title page attached to an ancient support sheet and inserted in the correct position. Eighteenth-century English binding in full blue Morocco leather, covers decorated with a wide gilded floral border, spine with five raised bands with richly decorated compartments and red Morocco leather panels with gilded titles. Copy in excellent overall condition, pages slightly browned but strong and intact, with marginal signs of use. Pages (2); (18); 710; (2).

Full title and author
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
London, Richard Kele, [1538].
Geffrey Chaucer.

Context and Significance
The edition, descending from William Thynne's princeps (London, 1532), represents the first true consecration of Chaucer as England's national author. Gathering his major works and integrating them with related texts by John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve, it defined the medieval English literary canon and made it accessible to the educated public of the Elizabethan age. The Gothic character and Middle English language retain the archaic aura of an identity heritage, while the printing, produced in London workshops that also served the Tudor court, manifests the cultural pride of a kingdom that was defining its own language and literary mythology.

Biography of the Author
Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London around 1343 and died in 1400. He was a diplomat, royal official, and court poet. Considered the father of English literature, he blended the French and Italian heritage (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio) with the native tradition, shaping a national poetic language. The Canterbury Tales are his masterpiece, an ironic and lively fresco of 14th-century England, intertwining moral, comic, and allegorical registers. He is buried in the Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey.

Printing history and circulation
The first edition of Chaucer's Works was published by William Thynne in 1532, followed by an expanded edition in 1542. Subsequently, various versions were reprinted between 1561 and 1602, edited by figures such as John Kyngston, Adam Islip, and Richard Kele, who introduced corrections and added Lydgate's Siege of Thebes. These editions were widely circulated in university libraries and among Elizabethan collectors, becoming the main witnesses of Chaucerian textual transmission before the 18th-century revision by John Urry (1721).

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
STC 5068–5071 (British Library); Pforzheimer 179; Grolier, Langland to Wither, 33; De Ricci, English Collectors of Books & Manuscripts, p. 47; Speght, Chaucer’s Works, 1598; Printing and the Mind of Man 38 (per la tradizione tipografica elisabettiana).