Acquired before 1916. Belonged to Clarence S. Bement of Philadelphia; not identified in his sales (28 February, 29 March 1923); apparently acquired by Henry E. Huntington before 1916.
Restrictions
RESTRICTED. Use digital reproductions in the Huntington Digital Library. Original available by special permission only.
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.
![[Prose and poetry]: manuscript, [between 1475 and 1500]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Frail.huntington.org%2FIIIF3%2FImage%2F22APN42QXXPP%2Ffull%2F%5E360%2C%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=750&q=75)
![Didactic pieces : manuscript, [between 1425 and 1450]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Frail.huntington.org%2FIIIF3%2FImage%2F22APN41BB00O%2Ffull%2F%5E360%2C%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=750&q=75)
![[Poems]: manuscript, [between 1400-1425]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Frail.huntington.org%2FIIIF3%2FImage%2F22APN42Q43CB%2Ffull%2F%5E360%2C%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=750&q=75)
