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Essay / The manuscripts and printing of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that in manuscript form they were then submitted for printing and redistribution. in the 1500s as they grew in popularity. Here, 1400s manuscript manufacturing and woodblock printing will be discussed in relation to the Canterbury Tales, as well as the cultural influence of the 1500s on printing manufacturing and printed publication. Finally, an examination of the overall structure of the two scripts will show the scribal work required to produce a sumptuous manuscript in the early 1500s. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay In order to write a manuscript, the contextual inner workings must first be completed. The Canterbury Tales were made from vellum, usually calfskin, which first had to be bound into quires. You then need to stitch the notebook to attach them to each other, as well as to keep them in order. Next, the pages must be lined to ensure the scribe stays within the correct writing margins. The decision was most often made with pen, ink and a very light hand. On paper, the ruler may still be visible depending on the initial weight of the marking. Scribes would then use this decision as a guide for copying the original text and putting it on paper, thus reinforcing the possibility of making many copies of a manuscript provided there were enough scribes to do so. Although a numbering system became popular in the 1400s, it is not found in the manuscript here. Once the copy of the original work was completed, the manuscript was then illuminated to add informative illustrations related to the story and add further detail to the pages. The Canterbury Tales are famous for their well-lit pages, made up of colors such as blue, red and green. Flowers can be seen decorating the margins of the pages, alongside well-embellished initials which often represent Chaucer himself. These highly embellished pages were used to separate stories within the manuscript, often containing the prologue to the next section. To ensure the book was well preserved, endpapers would be attached to both ends to protect the parchment from worms and general damage from handling. These endpapers were widely used in expensive manuscripts and often told of the excellent work done in the script. In the 1400s, the process of creating a manuscript was intensive and required a high degree of skill. However, in the late 1400s and early 1500s, the Canterbury Tales were subjected to a more modern system of script making, woodblock printing. When it was a more mass-produced approach, matrices were created. A die is made by cutting an inverted letter from a steel bar, striking it into soft metal (usually copper), creating an impression. Molten metal was then poured onto the die to create a cast of the letter. Typically, several copies of letters were made to ensure that a full text was printed. Composers then took these letters and arranged them on a composing stick to form words and sentences. After a proof was made to ensure no corrections were necessary, printing continued. Typically, ink wasapplied to the letters and a piece of moistened paper was placed on top, the paper was rubbed to ensure proper transfer of the ink and the process was repeated for the number of pages required. However, the printing press was also used in the late 15th and early 15th centuries, allowing for a more efficient working speed when mass producing manuscripts. For pages intended to be illuminated with decorations or designs, woodblock printing would be used for these designs. The wooden blocks were carved by carvers in specific designs and in the same way as printing the page itself, ink would be applied to the wooden board and the page would be applied onto it, again rubbing the page to ensure proper ink transfer. After printing, the pages were hung to dry before being assembled. This was then taken to the imposition stage, where the pages were arranged in appropriate numerical order based on numbers or keywords that were on the pages to arrange and fold the pages before make signatures. The final stage of this production is the binding of the book. It was common for the book to be bound after being purchased by the owner, instead of the manufacturing company binding it for them. The notebooks would already be sewn and the new owner could personalize the book as desired, whether that meant adding endpapers, a hard cover, a soft cover, or decorations to embellish the script. However, the service of binding and adding a cover to one's book could also be chargeable. In conclusion, these are just two types of manufacturing that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales saw over the period 1400-1500, it is essential to understand how script and book manufacturing occurred before becoming interested to the respective period in which these methods took place. and the respective culture around it. When it came to the 1400s, Chaucer was extremely picky about his texts. He was incredibly concerned that his texts be preserved and presented as he wrote them and not further corrected. This was highlighted in Chaucer's letter to one of his scribes, accusing him of corrupting his texts by copying them poorly. Famously, Chaucer had a scribe called Adam, whom he sharply chastised for not copying his work word for word and for changing the text when Chaucer felt it should not be changed. This interaction can be seen in "CHAUCER'S WORDES UNTO ADAM, HIS OWNE SCRIVEYN", in which it is very evident that as an author, Chaucer took his own work extremely seriously. To which he thought that his own scribe should be held responsible for his negligence because he had to correct his scribe's work again. This behavior shows the position in which Chaucer saw himself, a highly regarded man whose works had to remain in the context in which he himself wrote them. It is clear that Chaucer is considered at this status because, through the lighting of The Canterbury Tales, he is depicted in a wealthy position. Chaucer can be seen in these initials wearing long, rich clothing, carrying handbags or a well-adorned book, or depicted writing or reading. This vision not only carried over to the lighting process behind the initials, but also to the surrounding embellishment of the pages. A well embellished and decorated page symbolized a highly respected author and the work it contained. These well-embellished manuscripts represented not only the author but also those who carried them. The well-decorated and bound manuscripts were evidence of the person's wealthy status, and asAs ownership of manuscripts became more widely available, the opportunity arose to display one's wealth with the illumination of a owned manuscript. Ultimately, a person's social status had an influence on manuscript production with regard to illumination and overall quality. This influence can be seen in Chaucer's social position among people as an author, but also in the position of a wealthy person regarding the completion of a manuscript. Moving into the 1500s, the Canterbury Tales became incredibly popular and this can be seen in the many surviving manuscript copies from this era, such as: The Canterbury Tales printed by Richard Pynson in 1492 and a secondary printing by Richard Pynson published in 1526, containing The Boke of the Caunterbury Tales. These publications were made using the technique of woodcut and printing, but this created entirely new iterations for Chaucer's work as through different scribes and different translations, the Canterbury Tales were been altered and lost bits of their original meaning. Caxton's version had been closely followed by Pynson, but over time the language also began to change, as Pynson replaced "hem" with "them", and so on. Furthermore, while the ownership and embellishment of books was still an important element in the 15th century, the rise of mass production made them more widely accessible to the general public. Prints made during this century were usually only in black ink, as it was easier and more affordable to make them that way. Although illustrations were always present in the book, they often differed from the descriptions given by Chaucer himself. They were most likely intended as stock figures to fill pages and were often reused in different printed publications. We continually see a growing deviation from the author's original intent in The Canterbury Tales, as the illumination no longer features the same illustrative detail. Books gradually became a common thing to have and share, especially with Chaucer's Tales, as they were usually read aloud. This relates to the culture that surrounded the culture of the time, as less emphasis was placed on embellishing the book as it began to move towards the content of the book and the story at hand, rather than to embellish the author and oneself. Here, a late 14th century early 15th century manuscript of Ellesmere Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales) will be examined. This manuscript is an example of high quality workmanship, with well illuminated pages and especially illustrations; including Chaucer himself. This indicates that it is a very expensive product, probably ordered by a wealthy customer. The manuscript is made and written on vellum, an animal skin most likely from a calf. It has several endpapers on the front and back of the book to protect it from damage, as well as signatures following these pages - most likely from previous owners. The manuscript is bound in a traditional format, with the notebooks aligned and sewn together. This manuscript was most likely ruled in ink, as some pages still bear marks in red ink that are believed to guide the scribe's writing. The text is said to come from a single scribe, but the illustrations were probably created by several artists. The first general prologue powerfully describes the amount of work necessary to bring this manuscript to light. It is strongly indicative of a later Gothic and humanist approach, with extensive use of flowery initials,..
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