© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library
© 2020 University of Chicago Library
The collection is open for research.
One set of cards in Series II, The Corpus of Variants of The Canterbury Tales, is on loan to the University of Oklahoma in support of the Variorum Chaucer Project. Inquiries about access to cards D1265-D1664 should be directed to the project offices in the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Oklahoma. http://www.ou.edu/variorum/.
The glass negative in box 135 is broken and should be handled with care.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Chaucer Research Project. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
The Chaucer Research Project began in 1924 when University of Chicago Professors of English, John Mathews Manly (1865-1940) and Edith Rickert (1871-1938), launched a systematic study of the complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Their goal was to produce an authoritative text of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales by painstakingly collecting, photographing, collating, and studying all existing Chaucer manuscripts. Manly and Rickert had already worked together during World War I on cryptography for the War Department. They applied their collective linguistic and analytical skills to the study of Chaucer's works with the same fervor as they had given to cryptographic problems during the war. At the University of Chicago, a Chaucer textual laboratory was organized in Wieboldt Hall where a team of graduate students analyzed photostatic copies of Chaucer manuscripts for details such as lettering styles, paper marking, and ink in order to establish the manuscripts' provenance. During six months of each year, Manly and Rickert traveled to Europe to examine original manuscripts held in public and private collections for details such as ink changes, erasures, binding, and trimming that may not have been apparent in the photostatic copies in their laboratory. Their work resulted in an eight-volume edition, The Text of the Canterbury Tales, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1940.
Simultaneously with the work on the edition of the Canterbury Tales, the Chaucer Research Project grew to encompass the compilation of sources of information on Chaucer's life and on the times in which he lived. This work, which began in 1927, continued for one decade under the direction of Manly and Rickert, who employed researchers in Britain and the United States to discover and evaluate the great mass of material. Their intention was to reevaluate, and move beyond, manuscripts examined by the Chaucer Society for their multi-volume work, Life Records of Chaucer (K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1900). The collections of the various City Companies of London, the Public Record Office, the British Museum, the Guildhall Library, the Bodleian Library, the Society of Antiquaries, the College of Arms, the Ipswich Public Library, and others were examined for all possible sources of information on Chaucer's life, as well as for collateral information that would place his life in the proper historical setting. The researchers ultimately decided to abandon the Chaucer Society's strict chronological arrangement of material, and instead group records first by subject matter, then by date.
Numerous scholars at the University of Chicago and abroad were employed for the project. British historian and archivist, Lilian J. Redstone (1885-1955), oversaw research conducted in Britain and on the Continent. Her father, Vincent B. Redstone, and sister, Mabel I. Redstone, researched Chaucer's ancestry. Catherine M. Jamison studied legal documents, Chaucer's Petherton connections, Chaucer's associations with the House of Lancaster, and the records of his descendants. Mabel H. Mills utilized exchequer resources to research Chaucer's annuities and his jobs as Controller of the Customs in the port of London and Clerk of the King's Works. In Chicago, Miss M. K. Dale, Lydia Marshall, Ramona Bressie, Florence White, Ruth Jackson, Mabel Dean, James R. Hulbert, Martin M. Crow, and others, labored in the Wieboldt laboratory.
In 1935, Edith Rickert and Lilian Redstone began to prepare a draft of the Chaucer Life-Records. Sadly, Rickert died in 1938, followed shortly by Manly's death in 1940. The bulk of the life-records manuscript preparation therefore fell to Lilian Redstone. She completed her draft in 1941. World War II interrupted the project for six years. In 1947, Professor of English, Martin M. Crow (1901-1997; PhD Chicago 1934), began a preliminary survey of the Chaucer Research Project records. He invited University of the Pacific Professor Clair C. Olson (1901–1972; PhD Chicago, 1938) to assist in this endeavor in 1950. The two had already worked together in the Wieboldt laboratory, and they had collaborated in 1941 to complete Edith Rickert's Chaucer's World (Columbia University Press). Crow and Olson spent years refiling, indexing, checking, cross-referencing, analyzing, and editing the Chaucer Research Project records. Crow spent several weeks in 1952 interviewing Lilian Redstone in her home in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England about the project. Lilian Redstone died in 1955. After 19 years of labor (on top of the 20 years of work that came before it), Crow and Olson published the Chaucer Life-Records in 1966 (Oxford, Clarendon Press).
The Chaucer Research Project records date from 1886 to 1965, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1925 to 1954. The records are divided into six series.
Series I, Manuscript Reproductions, contains photostatic copies of manuscripts related to the life of Geoffrey Chaucer, and photostatic copies of manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The photostatic reproduction process was introduced in 1911, and uses a paper sensitized with a gelatin-based emulsion containing silver salts to produce white lines on a black background. The Chaucer Research Project utilized this process to produce high-quality manuscript reproductions for study, generated directly from original manuscripts in public and private collections throughout Europe and the United States. This series is further subdivided into three subseries:
Subseries 1, Photostatic Copies of Manuscripts, contains a general assortment of photostatic manuscripts collected to train the staff of the Project and for analysis. Photostats include examples of English paleography for the 14th and 15th centuries, and manuscripts pertaining to scribes, scriveners, and the book trade of the period.
Subseries 2. Frederic Ives Carpenter Collection of Photostatic Copies of Manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, is a set of positive photostats of manuscripts of the Tales. Shortly after the death of Frederic Ives Carpenter, formerly a member of the University of Chicago Department of English, his widow approved the assignment of his bequest of $10,000 to the Department for acquisition of a complete collection of photostatic negatives and positives of manuscripts of the Tales. This money enabled Professors Manly and Rickert to acquire for the research project some 12,000 sheets of photostats and also provided for a duplicate set of positives which is now deposited in the British Museum. These photostats are arranged alphabetically according to the customary names of the manuscripts, and are then grouped in the same order in which the tales appear in the manuscripts concerned. For a detailed description of the methods of arrangement, see "Origin and Development of Our Plan" in Manly and Rickert's The Text of the Canterbury Tales, vol. I, pp. 1-9.
Subseries 3, Hengwrt Chaucer Facsimile, contains positive photostats of the Hengwrt Chaucer manuscript, a late 14th-century manuscript of the Canterbury Tales held in the National Library of Wales. In 1939, John M. Manly and Edith Rickert produced an article about the manuscript, "The Hengwrt Manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales," for the first issue of The National Library of Wales Journal. Thanks to Manly and Rickert, the Hg manuscript is used by most Chaucerians now as the starting point for reconstructing the authorial holograph. The subseries includes an envelope containing ultra-violet light images of some leaves - a technique proposed by Manly and Rickert following their code-breaking work in World War I.
Series II, The Corpus of Variants of The Canterbury Tales, contains index cards. In preparing their edition of The Canterbury Tales, Manly and Rickert devised a special method of collation which made it possible to expedite the work by clearly setting forth the difference among the 84 complete manuscripts and fragments. 3 x 5 cards were used to record a line-by-line, word-for-word corpus of variants in all the extant manuscripts. For details of the collation methods used, see the introduction to Volume II of The Text of the Canterbury Tales, pp. 1-45.
The Corpus of Variants of The Canterbury Tales cards are arranged alphanumerically. The University of Chicago does not hold the entire set of variant cards produced during the Chaucer Research Project. Some cards were never completed during the Chaucer Research Project. Some cards were shared among scholars and never returned to the original project records before coming to the archives. One set of cards for the Friar’s Tale – cards D1265-D1664 - is on loan to the Variorum Chaucer Project at the University of Oklahoma. Inquiries about access to cards D1265-D1664 should be directed to the project offices in the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Oklahoma. http://www.ou.edu/variorum/.
The Corpus of Variants of the Canterbury Tales cards originally included the following tales:
Cards A – SOME NOT HELD
• General Prologue
• Knight’s Tale
• Knight-Miller link
• Miller’s Tale
• Miller-Reeve link
• Reeve’s Tale
• Cook’s Tale [never completed]
Cards B – SOME NOT HELD
• Man of Law’s Tale headlink
• Man of Law’s Tale prologue
• Man of Law’s Tale
• Shipman’s Tale
• Shipman-Prioress link [Lines 1624-1880]
• Prioress’ Tale
• Prioress-Thopas link
• Tale of Sir Thopas
• Thopas-Melibeus link
• Tale of Melibeus [Tale of Melibee]
• Melibeus-Monk link
• Monk’s Tale
• Monk-Nun’s Priest link
• Nun’s Priest’s Tale [Lines 3957-4652. Lines 3958-4000 missing.]
Cards C
• Physician’s Tale [Lines 1-328]
• Physician-Pardoner link
• Pardoner’s prologue
• Pardoner’s Tale
• Epilogue
• Pardoner-Shipman spurious links
Cards D – SOME WITH UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
• Wife of Bath prologue [Lines 1-1264]
• Wife of Bath’s Tale
• Wife of Bath-Friar link
• Friar’s Tale
• Friar-Summoner link [Lines 1665-2294]
• Summoner’s Tale
Cards E – NOT HELD
• Clerk’s Tale
• Merchant’s Tale
• Squire’s Tale headlink
Cards F
• Squire’s Tale [Lines 1-672]
• Squire-Franklin link
• Franklin’s Tale
• Canon’s Yeoman-Physician spurious link
Cards G – NOT HELD
• Second Nun’s Tale
• Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale
Cards H
• Manciple’s prologue [Lines 1-362]
• Manciple’s Tale
Cards I
• Parson’s Tale
• Chaucer’s Retraction
Series III, The Chaucer Life-Records, contains correspondence, notes, card files, indices, reports, schedules, charts, clippings, receipts, drawings, manuscript drafts and other material pertaining to the administration of the project and the production of the Chaucer Life-Records. Materials are arranged into six subseries.
Subseries 1, General Administrative Records, Miscellaneous Notes and Reports, contains bibliographic and background material, agendas and schedules, lists, reports, and correspondence relevant to the overall management of the project. The subseries also contains undated notes and reports that do not clearly fit within Subseries 2 or 3.
Subseries 2, The Life-Records, consists of research material compiled circa 1927-1937 under Manly and Rickert's direction. This includes photostatic copies of original documents, transcripts, notes, and in some instances the pertinent correspondence of the research workers on particular problems. The records are arranged by subject matter and within each subject matter group according to date of record of events. Oversize material has been moved to box 73. This material was used in preparing the Chaucer Life-Records, originally contemplated by Manly and Rickert, continued by Ms. Lilian J. Redstone (head of their London research team), and completed by professors Martin M. Crow and Clair C. Olson.
Subseries 3, The Supplementary Life-Records, was compiled by Lilian and Vincent Redstone and donated after Lilian's death. The materials were given to the University Library in September, 1955 by Miss Mabel I. Redstone of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Miss Redstone was secretary and research assistant to her late father, Vincent E. Redstone, who directed research on Chaucer's ancestry, and sister of the late Lilian J. Redstone, who headed Manly and Rickert's London research team. The supplementary material was collected and arranged by Miss Lilian J. Redstone and was in her possession until her death early in 1955.
This material consists of transcripts from pertinent documents in British historical records, such as the Chancery Rolls, the Husting Rolls, and similar collections now preserved in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, the Guildhall Library, and other British repositories.
Like material in Subseries 2, the supplementary life record material is non-literary in character and does not concern Chaucer the poet but Chaucer the government official and the man. Although this new material often duplicates material in Subseries 2, the duplicates have been retained because of the complexity of organization and rarity of the material. The original arrangement of files on ancestry, associates, places, and miscellaneous subjects have been retained. Oversize material has been moved to boxes 89 and 90. Many of the persons and places involved are of minor importance, and the material concerning them consists only of a few sentences.
Subseries 4, Lilian J. Redstone Manuscript Draft of Chaucer Life-Records, contains notes, lists, and manuscripts drafts prepared by Lilian J. Redstone for a new edition of the life records of Chaucer (succeeding the edition published by the Chaucer Society, London, 1900). The manuscript is organized roughly in final form with preface, detailed table of contents, partially complete annotation, and exhaustive bibliography of documents. Along with much commentary on the nature of the records, this preparatory draft contains verbatim transcripts of all newly discovered records as well as of the greater part of the records published in the Chaucer Society's edition. Redstone's manuscript was later revised and published by Martin M. Crow and Clair C. Olson in 1966 (Oxford, Clarendon Press). Oversize materials have been moved to box 96.
Subseries 5, Vincent B. Redstone's Notes on the Chaucer Life-Records, contains notes, reports, correspondence, and indices maintained by Lilian J. Redstone's father, Vincent B. Redstone, throughout his research for the project. Materials are arranged in rough chronological order, with undated material at the end of the subseries.
Subseries 6, Card Files for the Chaucer Life-Records, contains 12 sets of card file notes or indices created during the project's initial phase under the direction of Manly and Rickert, and later during the revision and publication process for the Chaucer Life-Records under the direction of Crow and Olson. The card files are grouped into these two distinct phases of the project:
Sub-subseries 1: Card Files, circa 1920-1951
Sub-subseries 2: Card Files, circa 1952-1965
Series IV, Reference and Published Material for Chaucer Research Project Laboratory, contains a small amount of material used to train project researchers, as well as books and offprints associated with project researchers. This includes a spelling dictionary created by Mabel Dean, and heavily-annotated copies of the Chaucer Society's Life-Records of Chaucer. Material in this series is arranged chronologically.
Series V, Photographs and Lantern Slides, contains photographs, negatives, and lantern slides of Chaucer Research Project staff, as well as manuscripts, seals, and places associated with Chaucer.
Series VI, Artifacts, contains reproductions of Canterbury pilgrim objects, reproductions of family seals, a manuscript fragment, and an unidentified brick fragment.
The Corpus of Variants of The Canterbury Tales cards are arranged alphanumerically. The University of Chicago does not hold the entire set of variant cards produced during the Chaucer Research Project. Some cards were never completed during the Chaucer Research Project. Some cards were shared among scholars and never returned to the original project records before coming to the archives. One set of cards for the Friar’s Tale – cards D1265-D1664 - is on loan to the Variorum Chaucer Project at the University of Oklahoma. Inquiries about access to cards D1265-D1664 should be directed to the project offices in the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Oklahoma. http://www.ou.edu/variorum/.
The Corpus of Variants of The Canterbury Tales cards originally included the following tales:
Cards A – SOME NOT HELD
• General Prologue
• Knight’s Tale
• Knight-Miller link
• Miller’s Tale
• Miller-Reeve link
• Reeve’s Tale
• Cook’s Tale [never completed]
Cards B – SOME NOT HELD
• Man of Law’s Tale headlink
• Man of Law’s Tale prologue
• Man of Law’s Tale
• Shipman’s Tale
• Shipman-Prioress link [Lines 1624-1880]
• Prioress’ Tale
• Prioress-Thopas link
• Tale of Sir Thopas
• Thopas-Melibeus link
• Tale of Melibeus [Tale of Melibee]
• Melibeus-Monk link
• Monk’s Tale
• Monk-Nun’s Priest link
• Nun’s Priest’s Tale [Lines 3957-4652. Lines 3958-4000 missing.]
Cards C
• Physician’s Tale [Lines 1-328]
• Physician-Pardoner link
• Pardoner’s prologue
• Pardoner’s Tale
• Epilogue
• Pardoner-Shipman spurious links
Cards D – SOME WITH UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
• Wife of Bath prologue [Lines 1-1264]
• Wife of Bath’s Tale
• Wife of Bath-Friar link
• Friar’s Tale
• Friar-Summoner link [Lines 1665-2294]
• Summoner’s Tale
Cards E – NOT HELD
• Clerk’s Tale
• Merchant’s Tale
• Squire’s Tale headlink
Cards F
• Squire’s Tale [Lines 1-672]
• Squire-Franklin link
• Franklin’s Tale
• Canon’s Yeoman-Physician spurious link
Cards G – NOT HELD
• Second Nun’s Tale
• Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale
Cards H
• Manciple’s prologue [Lines 1-362]
• Manciple’s Tale
Cards I
• Parson’s Tale
• Chaucer’s Retraction