What Did Renaissance Readers Write in their Printed Copies of Chaucer?

Abstract

This article surveys marginalia and readers' marks in fifty-four Renaissance printed copies of Chaucer. The discussion considers the use of Chaucer's works as sources of advice and wisdom; antiquarian interest in Chaucer; continuities and overlaps between print and manuscript cultures; the household as a site of reading and annotation; and women as participants amongst Chaucer's Renaissance readership. The trends and patterns identified, in many cases, corroborate the findings of other scholars and add further detail to existing profiles of the Renaissance reading experience. However, certain aspects of the annotations are shown to be peculiar to the Chaucer corpus. Most importantly, Chaucer's fame is repeatedly found to have influenced and inspired his Renaissance annotators. The annotations thus confirm literary historians' sense of Chaucer's importance as an auctor in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whilst they also test and challenge certain assumptions about the nature of that authority.