William Thynne (d. 1546)

Author / Editor
Blodgett, James E.

Title
William Thynne (d. 1546)

Published
Paul Ruggiers, ed. Editing Chaucer: The Great Tradition (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1984), pp. 35-52.

Description
Summarizes the life of William Thynne and gauges the editorial practices and influence of his 1532 edition of Chaucer's "Workes," arguing that it introduced humanistic rigor into the editing of English works. Although Thynne's practices were "uneven," he used multiple witnesses to create his edition and his emendations tend toward archaism and "classicization" (especially of proper names). The edition was the first to include several of Chaucer's works (Rom, BD, LGW, Pity, Sted, Astro), but also introduced a number of spurious poems afterwards held to be by Chaucer into the eighteenth century.

Alternative Title
Editing Chaucer: The Great Tradition.

Chaucer Subjects
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations
Manuscripts and Textual Studies
Chaucerian Apocrypha