CHAUCER, GEOFFREY. 1340?-1400.
[The Canterbury Tales. Westminster: William Caxton, 1477.]
Single folio leaf (241 x 162 mm), from the Tale of Melibeus. 29 lines, batarde type, two 2-line initials in red over printed guide letters. Remnants of mounting and stab holes to inner margin, verso initial smudged.
LEAF FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF THE CANTERBURY TALES, the first substantial book printed on William Caxton's press set up in the precincts of Westminster Abbey in 1476. The present text runs from "the Joye of god he saith is durable..." to "...For right as he that taketh a strange hounde by the eerys, he is other-whyle byten wyth the hound, ryght in the same Wyse it is reson that he have harme that by hys Inpacyence medlyth...." Goff C431; Hain 4921.