Herbert C. Schulz (1902–1986)

What a difference a revolutionary discovery makes!

This beautiful little book offers (reduced-size) reproductions of some two dozen pages of the Ellesmere Chaucer, the most beautiful and one of the best copies of the Canterbury Tales. If you want such a book, grab it -- although it's worth noting that many of these pages are now available free on the web.

But whether you want it or not, realize that the text of the book -- most of which goes back to 1966 -- is dramatically out of date. Everything changed when, in 2004, it was discovered that the scribe of the Ellesmere manuscript (and of the other most important Chaucer manuscript, Hengwrt) was Adam Pinkhurst -- meaning that he was the scribe against whom Chaucer fulminated in his poem "Adam Scriven."

This discovery does not, in fact, reduce the value of Ellesmere as a source for the Canterbury Tales. But it makes much of Schulz's text obsolete; any discussion of the Ellesmere text must take into account the scribe.

The conclusion is very simple: Buy this book -- if you do -- for the pictures. For information about the manuscript itself, you need something newer.… (plus d'informations)