MS 314 / en Pleyyng with May’s Age in Oxford, New College MS 314 /pleyyng-mays-age-oxford-new-college-ms-314 Pleyyng with May’s Age in Oxford, New College MS 314 Lucy Fleming Issue number (2023): 20 Notes category Library Manuscript MS 314 Geoffrey Chaucer The Merchant’s Tale The Canterbury Tales

MS 314 (c. 1450–70) is something of an infamous manuscript among Chaucer scholars. At first glance, it seems like a fairly standard copy of the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s famous unfinished poem. Absent the illuminations and gilding of more celebrated manuscripts such as the Ellesmere, the simple rubrication of MS 314 might even strike readers as plain. However, it takes only a brief page-through to realise that this manuscript is hardly as tight-laced as its stiff binding would suggest.

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 314, f. 82v [detail]

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford
20NCN4 (2023) Fleming on MS 314.pdf374.29 KB ]]> Thu, 28 Dec 2023 20:26:58 +0000 Christopher 2922 at The Penitent’s Tale; or, New College Library’s Copy of The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (1717) /node/1982 The Penitent’s Tale; or, New College Library’s Copy of The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (1717) Christopher Skelton-Foord Issue number (2019): 12 Notes category Library Antiquarian Library Manuscripts Alexander Pope MS 314 Geoffrey Chaucer ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ history

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library holds a fine edition of 1717 of Alexander Pope’s works, and it nicely illustrates a modern tale of redemption. A reader in our library purloined c. 1980 this copy’s splendid, engraved frontispiece portrait by George Vertue (1684–1756) of the poet, only to return the frontispiece anonymously on 18 October 2010—along with a note in which they confessed, ‘I’m thoroughly ashamed of myself, and I return it with apologies’.

 

The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (London, 1717)
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, NB.91.18

 

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford
12NCN8 (2019) Skelton-Foord on Alexander Pope.pdf1.07 MB ]]> Sun, 29 Dec 2019 06:06:16 +0000 Christopher 1982 at Looking for Scribal Play in Oxford, New College MS 314 /node/1975 Looking for Scribal Play in Oxford, New College MS 314 Mary C. Flannery Issue number (2019): 12 Notes category Library Manuscripts Geoffrey Chaucer MS 314 12NCN3 (2019) Flannery on MS 314.pdf491.3 KB ]]> Tue, 24 Dec 2019 10:56:50 +0000 Christopher 1975 at