description Hengwrt Chaucer Overview
The Hengwrt Chaucer is an early manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, copied around the beginning of the 15th century. It is commonly attributed to the scribe Adam Pinkhurst and is valued because its text is early and comparatively free from later editorial rearrangement. The manuscript is written on vellum and is preserved at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth as Hengwrt 392D.
insights Ranking position
Hengwrt Chaucer ranks #66 of 243 in the Manuscript ranking, behind Book of Hours of Jeanne d'Évreux, ahead of Hours of Mary of Burgundy.
help Hengwrt Chaucer FAQ
Why is the Hengwrt manuscript important for editing The Canterbury Tales?
Hengwrt is one of the earliest surviving copies and preserves a text relatively free from many later attempts to regularize or rearrange the Tales. Editors compare it closely with the more elaborately decorated Ellesmere manuscript.
Who copied the Hengwrt Chaucer?
Scholars commonly identify its principal scribe as Adam Pinkhurst. The same scribe is also associated with the Ellesmere Chaucer, linking two of the most important early witnesses to the poem.
Does the Hengwrt manuscript contain a complete Canterbury Tales?
No. It has missing leaves and presents the tales in an arrangement that differs from later familiar editions, reflecting the unfinished and textually unstable state of Chaucer's work.
Where is the Hengwrt Chaucer kept today?
It is preserved at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The name "Hengwrt" comes from the Welsh collection in which the manuscript was formerly held.
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