Chaucer Illustrated : Five Hundred Years of The Canterbury Tales in Pictures [new, in publisher's shrinkwrap] by Finley, William K.; & Joseph Rosenblum - 2003

New Castle, Delaware / London: Oak Knoll Press / The British Library, 2003. Brand New in a Brand New dust jacket. Perfect condition. STILL SEALED in the publisher's clear plastic SHRINKWRAP. NO rubbing. NO fading. Bright, shiny, clean, square and tight. Sharp corners. NO owner's name or bookplate. NO remainder mark. NOT a library discard. Fresh and crisp -- obviously never read. 2003. First Edition (so stated). Well illustrated with over 100 b/w reproductions as well as 42 in full color. Index. Bound in the original gilt-stamped green cloth. From the pristine dust jacket: "CHAUCER ILLUSTRATED presents ten scholarly essays, specifically commissioned for this volume, that collectively trace pictorial renditions of THE CANTERBURY TALES from the Ellesmere Manuscript (c. 1410) to the 20th-century illustrations of Rockwell Kent and Eric Gill. The contributors address the way the illustrations illuminate the history of book production, marketing, and readership; and the writers also consider how artists have interpreted Chaucer's text. Supporting the original scholarship are over forty color reproductions, along with over a hundred in black and white. These include, in addition to a generous sampling of the oft-reproduced Ellesmere Pilgrims, all the other images from medieval manuscripts of the TALES, including the privately held Devonshire MS... Some of the pictures have never been reproduced before, notably nine by James Jefferys that accompany the essay by Betsy Bowden, who discovered these images, long thought to have [been] permanently lost, in Harvard's Houghton Library. Also appearing here for the first time since 1818 is William Paulet Carey's CRITICAL DESCRIPTION of Thomas Stothard's PROCESSION OF CHAUCER'S PILGRIMS TO CANTERBURY, edited with an introduction by Maria McGarrity (Appendix 2). Anyone interested in the Canterbury Tales or how artists through the centuries have struggled to use illustration to enhance text should find in this volume much to delight and inform." 7.25" wide by 10.25" tall.. First Edition (so stated). Hardcover. New/New DJ (still in shrinkwrap). xxiii, 445pp. + color plates. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping.