Lansdowne MS of Chaucer's Canterbury tales

This page has extended information for proofreading the project MS of Chaucer's Canterbury tales This is a hard project, and more detailed instructions with illustrated examples seem to be desirable.

Letters

Lowercase letter thorn is frequently used. Here is how it looks in the word "þat":

The uppercase thorn used in this book looks a little different than it is usually displayed in modern fonts, and is sometimes incorrectly identified as various other things by proofers. Here is how it looks in the same word, "Þat":

Both cases can be found in the picker with the label ~.

Here is lowercase letter yogh as printed in this text, with a following "e" for context:

And the same, but with uppercase yogh (which will occasionally be encountered):

Both of those characters can be found in the "Medieval letters" picker.

Here are a few other images of unusual characters you may encounter:

	proof as: [l~l]
	proof as: [n)]
	proof as: [r)]
	proof as: [d~]

The editor says at the beginning: "after very many final c, e, f, g, k, r, s, t, there is a stroke or a tag. The number is so great [...] that I am obliged to disregard all." However, in the later part, there are some letters printed with an extra tag on the right. For example:

Please proof them as [k+], [g+], [t+], or [f+].

Other characters

The punctus elevatus is a medieval punctuation character. This is how it looks, as printed in this book, preceded by the word "self" for context:

Please proof it as: [;]

Page headers

Normally, page headers are to be removed, as per the proofreading guidelines. However, as an exception, I would like the page header retained when it is at the beginning of a new section. A page with a new section will look something like this example.

Note the extra space on the upper part of the page and large drop-cap letter (which indicates an illuminated letter in the original manuscript.) So for this page, and similar cases, I would like the header, such as, "Group D. § 4. Friar's tale." to be retained. This is because it contains information that is not present elsewhere in the text. Please do not keep the words "Lansdowne MS." that appear close to it.

Teseida

On pages 034–098 there are marginal notes comparing The Knight's Tale with the epic poem Teseida by Giovanni Boccaccio. The column after the line numbers shows if the two are related as a direct translation, a general likeness, or a slight likeness.

To do that, it uses dots, a solid line, or dashes. Please proof these with the characters | ¦ . on the appropriate line. See the example below. Note that you don't need to worry about alignment in the proofing rounds--it's fine if the marginal symbols and notations do not line up.

ffor .I. dar .I. not be-knowe myne owne name   1556
Bot þere as .I. was wonte hiht Arcite               . See IV. 84.
Now .hiht. Philostrate not worþe a myte             . [Penteo, IV. 84.
Allas þou fel mars Allas þou Iuno.                  ¦ See IV. 17.
Thus haþe ȝower ire owre lignage al for-do.    1560 ¦
Saue only me and wreched palamon    [leaf 20, back] ¦
That Theseus Martireþ in prison                     ¦
And ouer al þis to slene me vtterly                 | IV. 82.
Loue haþ faire his darte so brinyngly          1564 |
Istiked þoruhe my trewe careful herte               |