URRY'S SPLENDID 1721 ILLUSTRATED FOLIO EDITION OF CHAUCER, WITH THREE PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED TALES, IN CONTEMPORARY CALF BOARDS
[CHAUCER, GEOFFREY]. The Works, Compared With the Former Editions, and Many Valuable Mss. Out of which, Three Tales are Added Which Were Never Before Printed; by John Urry, Student of Christ-Church, Oxon. Deceased: March, 17, 1714/9. Together With a Glossary, by a Student of the Same College. Jim Thomas. To the Whole is Prefixed the Author’s Life, Newly Written, and a Preface, Giving an Account of This Edition. London: printed for Bernard Lintot, between the Temple Gates, MDCCXXI. [1721].
First Urry edition. Leather-bound. Folio, 2⁰ (400 x 250 x 50 mm.). Pp. [52], 626, 81,[1]., plates: ill.,ports. English text in Roman type, printed in double columns. Contemporary full speckled calf sympathetically re-backed, six raised bands, renewed morocco spine labels. Initial and terminal blanks present. Portrait frontis. of John Urry, engraved portrait of Chaucer, title-page vignette showing Chaucer's tomb, 26 copper engraved illustrations to decorate each of the Canterbury Tales, and then the one extra for Sir Thopaz, decorated capital initials, chapter head- and tail-pieces, footnotes.
Contents: Portrait of John Urry as frontispiece, title page with vignette of Chaucer's Tomb, portrait of Chaucer by George Virtue 1717, Life of Chaucer - 21 pages, Testimonies - 11 pages, The Preface - 13 pages, Contents - 2 pages with cut of The Rhime of Sir Thopaz, Eight Godely Questions with their Answeres - 2 pages, Dedication to Queen Anne dated 1714, The Works of Jeffrey Chaucer: Prologue; Knight's Tale; Miller's Tale; Reve's Tale; Coke's Tale; Coke's Tale of Gamelyn; Man of Lawe's Tale; Squier's Tale; Marchaunt's Tale; Wife of Bath's Tale; Frere's Tale; Sompnour's Tale; Clerke of Oxenford's Tale; Frankelein's Tale; Second Nonne's Tale; Chanon's Yeman's Tale; Doctour of Physike's Tale; Pardoner's Tale; Shipmann's Tale; Prioresse's Tale; Chaucer's Tale of Melibeus; Monke's Tale; Priest's Tale; Manciple's Tale; Plowman's Tale; Parson's Tale; Romaunt of the Rose; Troilus and Creseide; The Legende of good Women; Legende of Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido Quene of Carthage, Hipsipyle and Medea, Lucrece, Ariadne, Philomela, Hypermnestra Boke of Boethius - 5 bokes, Dreme of Chaucer, Assemble of Foules, Floure of Courtesie made by John Lidgate, La Belle Dame sans mercy, Quene Annelida and false Arcite, Assemble of Ladies, Conclusions of the Astrolabie, Complaint of the blacke Knight, A Praise of Women, The House of Fame, The Floure and the Leafe written by Geffery Chaucer, The Testament of Love, The Lamentacion of Marie Magdaleine, The Remedie of Love, The Complaint of Mars and Venus, The Letter of Cupide, A Ballade in Commendacion of our Ladie, A Ballade to King Henry IV, Of the Cuckow and the Nightingale, Scogan unto the Lordes and Gentilmen of the Kinge's house, Certaine Ballades, The Court of Love, Chaucer's Dreame or The booke of the Duchesse or the Death of Blanch, Duchess of Lancaster, Jacke Upland, The Prologue or the mery adventure of the Pardonere and Tapstere at the Inn at Canterbury (not printed before as part of the Canterbury Tales, but Urry believes it be Chaucer's work), Merchant's Second Tale or the History of Beryn, Glossary - 81 pages, Errata - 1 page.
Condition: Collated complete. Binding tight and secure, the contemporary calf having been expertly restored; some light wear to extremities. The interior being very clean; one hole to the portrait of Urry which has been repaired and a small hole to leaf a1 (first leaf of The Life of Chaucer) affecting a few words of text, else very fine. Without inking or previous ownership markings.
Notes: First edition of Urry's folio edition of Chaucer's works, the first collected Chaucer in the easier-to-read Roman typeface, with three previously unpublished tales, beautifully illustrated with fine copper-engraved portraits, one of Chaucer by Vertue and one of Urry by Pigue, as well as a handsome title page vignette and numerous in-text copper engravings of the various Canterbury pilgrims. A handsome copy.
"Except for Shakespeare, Chaucer is foremost among writers in the English language" (Bloom, The Western Canon, 105). While this edition is commonly referred to as Urry's, he died before he could complete the work. His successor Thomas Ainsworth also died before the work was ready for the press, and it was revised by Timothy and William Thomas. "This was the first collected edition of Chaucer to be printed in roman type. The life of Chaucer prefixed to the volume was the work of the Reverend John Dart, corrected and revised by Timothy Thomas. The glossary appended was also mainly compiled by Thomas. The text of Urry's edition has often been criticized by subsequent editors for its frequent conjectural emendations, mainly to make it conform to his sense of Chaucer's meter. The justice of such criticisms should not obscure his achievement. His is the first edition of Chaucer for nearly 150 years to consult any manuscripts and is the first since that of William Thynne in 1534 to seek systematically to assemble a substantial number of manuscripts to establish his text… Urry was a friend of Thomas Hearne, who styles him a 'thorough pac'd scholar' and a 'truly worthy and virtuous, as well as ingenious, gentleman.' A portrait of Urry, engraved by N. Pigné, is prefixed to the work" (ODNB). This edition contains three previously unpublished tales: "The Coke's Tale of Gamelyn," "The Merchant's Second Tale" and "The Adventure of the Pardoner and Tapster at the Inn at Canterbury." This edition also includes a glossary of Middle English terms. With errata on last page. Woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces throughout. One thousand copies were printed on regular paper, as here, along with 250 large-paper copies. Alston, III. 35. Maslen & Lancaster. Bowyer ledgers, 779, Hammond, 128-30. Lowndes, 426. Ruggiers, 93-115.
