Stories from the Library: The Tales Through Time

Name: Stories from the Library: The Tales Through Time | The Huntington
Start: Sat, Jun 21 - Mon, Dec 1 2025
Location: The Huntington

Exhibitions

Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic "Canterbury Tales" features fictionalized characters who entertain each other with stories on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury Cathedral. In the 14th century, when Chaucer first penned the tales, each one circulated independently of the others. It was not until the turn of the 15th century that the tales came to be known as a complete work.

This exhibition begins with The Huntington’s iconic Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript, an elaborately decorated work created between 1400 and 1405. The most complete and authoritative version, it is presented alongside later iterations of the work to reveal how creators like writers, artists, and printers—collectively and individually—changed the tales textually and visually over five centuries of retellings.

A book open to two page, both with handwritten text and elaborate drawings and markings in and around the text.

A book opened to two pages, both black text and red drop caps.

A spread of a book with illustrations and illuminated text.

A spread of a book, on left a block of black text, on right a color illustration of a man and a woman holding a baby, in front of a red curtain.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (the Ellesmere Chaucer), England, ca. 1400–1405. Egerton Family Papers. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

In the late 14th and early 15th centuries, a scribe, initially collaborating directly with Geoffrey Chaucer, copied the individual pilgrims’ tales into this lavish work, presenting them as a single text. The same scribe also made an earlier version, known today as the Hengwrt Chaucer and housed at the National Library of Wales. The Huntington’s manuscript, the most complete and authoritative version—both for its readings and the order of the tales—features miniature paintings representing each of the 23 pilgrims. Scholars have argued that the one featured in the “Tale of Melibee” is a portrait of Chaucer. These paintings, along with the luxurious illuminations, help to make this one of the most famous English-language manuscripts.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Westminster: William Caxton, 1476 or 1477. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

This is one of the first books printed in England, and the first appearance of Chaucer’s writings in print. It contains all the tales found in modern editions but in a different sequence. The printer, William Caxton, later revealed that one of the book’s buyers told him that his text was corrupt. The buyer said his father owned a better manuscript, which prompted Caxton to print a second edition in 1483 with amendments from that source. Later editors drew their texts from a variety of manuscripts.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896. Sanford and Helen Berger Collection. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

The Kelmscott Chaucer, designed by William Morris and illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones, was the most spectacular physical product of the Victorian revival of early English literature. Containing Chaucer’s complete works, it was printed on handmade paper with a custom typeface. Printers used a handpress reinforced with steel bands to keep it from bursting under the pressure needed to cover the large print area. While some critics complained that the design overwhelmed the text, the book is still regarded as the pinnacle of the fine-press revival.

Janet Harvey Kelman, Stories from Chaucer, Told to the Children . . . with Pictures by W. Heath Robinson, London: T. C. and E. C. Jack, ca. 1906. Gift of Donald Green. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Janet Harvey Kelman’s four adaptations from Chaucer make no attempt to imitate his style, but her rendering of “The Clerk’s Tale” still leaves a lasting impression. It tells of Patient Griselda, whose husband subjects her to years of escalating emotional abuse in order to test her obedience and faithfulness. Finally, he is satisfied, and they live happily ever after. While most modern readers will find the story hard to take, they may be surprised to learn that it was still considered good character-building fare for young girls in the early 20th century.

Generous support for the Stories from the Library exhibition series is provided by the Robert F. Erburu Exhibition Endowment. Additional support is provided by The Neilan Foundation, the Steinmetz Foundation, Laura and Carlton Seaver, and the John Brockway Huntington Foundation.

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