A Renaissance Reader's English Annotations to Thynne's 1532 Edition of Chaucer's Works

Abstract

This article introduces a heavily annotated copy of the first collected edition of Chaucer's Works, published by William Thynne in 1532 (Beinecke Library, Osborn fpa 5). Over 1100 annotations, in English, record one near-contemporary but anonymous reader's engagement with the content and style of texts in this edition. The marginal comments demonstrate this annotator's predilection for proverbial material and figurative language, perhaps as a first step in transferring excerpts to a commonplace book or other place of record. This Renaissance reader evidently understood Chaucer's language, so does not provide glosses to the existing diction, but reflects individual linguistic preferences in summarising and recasting the texts in the marginal annotations, at times commenting on Chaucer's imagery or turn of phrase. This study indicates the range and type of annotation in this unique book, and suggests some implications for our knowledge of the reception of Chaucer in the sixteenth century.