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Chaucers Canterbury pilgrims

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    Canterbury tales : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    The Ellesmere Chaucer is a beautiful and elaborately decorated manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Created between 1400 and 1410, it contains what is believed to be a portrait of Chaucer as well as miniature paintings of twenty-two of the fictional pilgrims who tell stories in order to enliven the journey from London to Canterbury. The manuscript is in excellent condition partly because it was undisturbed for about three centuries in the library of Sir Thomas Egerton (later Baron Ellesmere) and his family. See Digital Scriptorium for full description.

    mssEL 26 C 9

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    Photographs: Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims [undated]. 1 item

    Manuscripts

    The collection contains 208 semi-cataloged items housed in two boxes (with one oversize volume). The majority of the collection deals with Alice Parsons Millard's estate and assets at the time of her death. There are documents and five volumes of inventories of the house and "museum," as well as 52 inventory note cards. These inventories list items (including furniture, books, etc.) owned by the Millards and often include the price they paid for it and/or the price for which they sold it. There is also a twelve-page, typed memoir of Alice Parsons Millard by Lucille V. Miller (1984). The correspondence includes 31 pieces, sixteen of which were written by Alice Parsons Millard. Many of the letters and postcards were written while Alice was abroad. One of her letters is to her client, collector Estelle Doheny. A number of her letters were to the Vanderhoef family, particularly Francis Bailey Vanderhoef, Jr. and his mother, Cornelia Young Vanderhoef. Ten letters by Alice Parsons Millard's secretary, Gertrude E. Treat, revolve around Alice's failing health, death, and the distribution of her estate. The photographs consist of 57 black and white photographs (and two negatives) of the following: the Millard's Highland Park house, the exterior and interior of "La Miniatura," the house's exhibits, the South Pasadena House, and three gates Alice contemplated purchasing while in London. There are also several personal photographs of Alice Parsons Millard, George Millard and various family members. There are five pieces of ephemera including Alice Parsons Millard's passport (1926) and copies of three of her obituaries (1938).

    mssMillard papers

  • Piers Plowman : [manuscript]

    Piers Plowman : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    ff. 1-106v; ff. 107-108v blank. [William Langland] Piers Plowman. Incipit: In a somer sesoun whan softe was þe sonne/ y shope me into shroudes as y a shep were. Explicit: And seende me hap and hele til y haue Peres plouhman/ And sethe he gradde aftur grace tyl y gan awake. English. IMEV 1459; C text, i group; ff. 60 and 61 reversed in binding. R. W. Chambers, "The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman in the Huntington Library and their Value for Fixing the Text of the Poem," HLB 8 (1935) 1-25; Piers Plowman: The Huntington Library MX (HM 143) reproduced in Photostat with Introduction by R. W. Chambers and Technical Examination by R. B. Haselden and H. C. Schulz (Huntington Library 1936); D. Pearsall, ed., Piers Plowman by William Langland: An Edition of the C-text (London 1978) from this manuscript with variant readings from others. ff. ii-iii verso. [Geoffrey Chaucer] Troilus and Criseyde. Incipit: //So whan thys Calkas knewe by kalkulynge/ And eke by onswere of this Appollo. Explicit: Of other sekenesse lest men of hym wende/ That the hoote fir of loue hym brende//. English. Two non-continuous leaves representing leaves 2 and 7 of a gathering of 8 leaves of a lost manuscript, and containing 20 stanzas: f. ii recto-verso: //So whan thys Calkas knewe by kalkulynge/ And eke by onswere of this Appollo . . . And under efte gan hem whielen bothe/ After hire cours ay whil that they were wrothe//; f. iii recto-verso: // And to the god of loue thus sayde he/ With pitous vois o lord now youres is . . . Of other sekenesse lest men of hym wende/ That the hoote fir of loue hym brende//. IMEV 3327; R. K. Root, ed., The Book of Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer (Princeton 1926) 1:71-140 and 1:421-490; M. B. Parkes and R. Beadle, Geoffrey Chaucer, Poetical Works: a facsimile of Cambridge University Library MS Gg.4.27 (Cambridge 1980-81) 3:65 note 94 referring to this manuscript. Assigned Date: s. XVin.

    mssHM 143

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    Piers Plowman : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    ff. 1-89v. [William Langland] Piers Plowman. Incipit: In a somere seyson whan softe was þe sonne/ y shop into shrobbis as y shepherde were. Explicit: And sende me hap and hele til ich haue peers ploughman/ And suthe he gradde after grace til ich gan awake. Hic explicit passus secundus de dobest. Explicit peeres plouheman scriptum per Thomam Dankastre. Rubric: Hic incipit Visio Willelmi de petro ploughman. English. IMEV 1459; C text, p group; see R. W. Chambers, "The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman in the Huntington Library and their Value for Fixing the Text of the Poem," HLB 8 (1935) 1-25; J. A. W. Bennett, "A New Collation of a Piers Plowman Manuscript (HM 137)," Medium Aevum 17 (1948) 21-31; T. D. Whitaker, ed., Visio Willi de Petro Plouhman (London 1813) from this manuscript; W. W. Skeat, ed., The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman by William Langland. EETS os 54 (London 1873) with this manuscript as the base text, described on pp. xix-xxiv; D. Pearsall, ed., Piers Plowman by William Langland: An Edition of the C-Text (London 1978) using HM 143 as the base manuscript.

    mssHM 137

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    William D. Shipman letter to Ogden Hoffman

    Manuscripts

    Shipman informs Hoffman of a decision in the district court of Connecticut, and the possible ramifications.

    mssHM 19017

  • [Piers Plowman; Mandeville; Troilus; etc., middle of the 15th century]

    [Piers Plowman; Mandeville; Troilus; etc., middle of the 15th century]

    Manuscripts

    Collection of Middle English texts, comprised of Langland's Piers Plowman in the B-text with substantial readings from A and C; a defective version, subgroup B, of Mandeville's Travels; the Middle English poem Susannah; "The legend of the Three Kings" an excerpt from John of Hildesheim's Historia Trium Regum; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde; and a translation of Peter Ceffons' Epistola Luciferi ad Cleros.

    mssHM 114