William Caxton's First Edition of the Canterbury Tales and the Origin of the Leaves for the Caxton Club's 1905 Leaf Book

Author / Editor
Mosser, Daniel W.

Title
William Caxton's First Edition of the Canterbury Tales and the Origin of the Leaves for the Caxton Club's 1905 Leaf Book

Published
Christopher de Hamel and Joel Silver, with contributions by John P. Chalmers, Daniel W. Mosser, and Michael Thompson. Disbound and Dispersed: The Leaf Book Considered (Chicago, Ill.: Caxton Club, 2005), pp. 24-51.

Description
A portion of a copy of Caxton's first edition of CT was "harvested" to make a run of "leaf books" for the Caxton Club. Mosser describes the project, the known portions of the dismembered book, the known copies of Caxton's first edition, collectors' efforts to reconstruct a "perfect" version of Caxton's original, and the codicological implications of such efforts. Includes two appendices.

Contributor
de Hamel, Christopher, ed.
Silver, Joel, ed.

Alternative Title
Disbound and Dispersed: The Leaf Book Considered.

Chaucer Subjects
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations.
Canterbury Tales--General.