Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales proved to be a beloved book in medieval literature, whereas in the early 1400s the tales existed only as manuscript and later they underwent printing and redistribution in the 1500s as they increased in popularity. Here the manuscript production of the 1400s and woodblock printing in relation to the Canterbury Tales will be discussed, as well as the cultural influence that the 1500s had on print production and typographical publications. Finally, a look at the overall structure of both scripts will show the scribal mastery needed to produce a sumptuous manuscript in the early 1500s. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To craft a manuscript, you must first complete the contextual inner workings. The Canterbury Tales were made on parchment, typically calfskin, which first had to be bound into notebooks. The notebook must then be stitched in order to attach them to each other, as well as to keep them in order. Next, the pages must be ruled to ensure the scribe stays within the correct writing margins. The sentence was commonly carried out with a pen, ink and a very light hand. On the paper the scratching may still be visible depending on the weight of the original marking. Scribes would then use this rule as a guide for copying the original text and putting it on paper, furthering the ability to make many copies of a manuscript if they had enough scribes to do so. Although a numbering system became popular in the 1400s, it is not found here in the manuscript. Once the original work was copied, the manuscript was then illuminated to add informative illustrations relating to the story and add further detail to the pages. The Canterbury Tales is famous for its well-lit pages, composed of colors such as blue, red and green. Flowers can be seen decorating the margins of the pages, along with beautifully embellished initials often depicting Chaucer himself. These highly embellished pages were used to separate stories within the manuscript, often containing the prologue to the next section. To ensure that the book was well preserved, endpapers would be attached to both ends to protect the parchment from woodworms and general damage resulting from handling. These endpapers were widely used in expensive manuscripts and often told of great work put into the script. In the 1400s the process of producing a manuscript was intense and required a high degree of skill to complete consecutively. However, in the late 1400s and early 1500s, The Canterbury Tales were subjected to a more modern system for script production, woodblock printing. When it came to a more mass-produced approach, matrices were made. A die is made by engraving a letter in reverse onto the top of a steel bar, striking it into a soft metal (typically copper), creating an impression. Molten metal was then poured over the matrix to make a casting of the letter, typically multiple copies of the letters were made to ensure the full text could be printed. Composers would then take these letters and arrange them on a stick to form words and sentences. After a proof print was made to ensure there were no corrections to be made, printing was continued. Typically, ink was applied to and on the lettersa piece of moistened paper was placed, the paper was rubbed to ensure proper ink transfer, and the process was repeated for the number of pages needed. However, the printing press also came into use in the late 1400s and early 1500s, allowing for a more efficient work speed when it came to mass producing manuscripts. For pages that needed to be illuminated with decorations or designs, woodblock printing was used for these designs. The wooden blocks would be carved by carvers into specific designs and similar to printing the page itself, ink would be applied to the wooden block and the page would be applied on top of it, once again rubbing the page to ensure proper transfer of the ink. 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 correct numerical order based on the numbers or slogans on the pages to arrange and fold the pages before turning them into signatures. The final stage of this production is the binding of the book. It was common for the book to be bound after it was purchased by the owner, rather than for the manufacturing company to bind it on their behalf. The issues would have already been sewn together, and the new owner could customize the book to his or her liking, adding endpapers, a hard cover, a soft cover, or decorations to embellish the script. However, the service of binding and adding a cover to your book may also require a fee. In conclusion, these are just two types of production that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales saw in the period 1400-1500, it is essential to understand how the production of scriptures and books occurred before looking at the respective time period in which these methods took place. place and the respective culture around it. As for the 1400s, Chaucer was extremely particular about his texts. He was incredibly anxious that his lyrics be preserved and presented as he had written them and not be further corrected. This was made evident in Chaucer's letter to one of his scribes, accusing him of corrupting his texts by miscopying them. Famously, Chaucer had a scribe called Adam, whom he strongly rebuked for not copying his work word for word and for not changing the text when Chaucer believed it should not be altered. This interaction can be seen in “CHAUCER'S WORDES UNTO ADAM, HIS OWNE SCRIVEYN,” where it is very evident that, as an author, Chaucer took his work extremely seriously. Whereupon he believed that his own scribe should be held responsible for his negligence as he had to correct his scribe's work again. This behavior shows the position in which Chaucer saw himself, a highly regarded man with works that needed to remain in the context in which he himself wrote them. It is clear that Chaucer is considered to be in this status as if, through the illumination of The Canterbury Tales, he is depicted in a wealthy position. Chaucer can be seen in these initials wearing long, rich robes, carrying purses or a well-embellished book, or depicted writing or reading. This vision was not only transferred to the lighting process behind the initials, but also to the surrounding embellishment of the pages. A well-embellished and decorated page symbolized a respected author and the work within. These well-embellished manuscripts depicted not only the author but also those who bore them. Well-decorated and bound manuscripts were evidence of a person's wealthy status, as ownership of manuscripts became more widely available, sipresented an opportunity to display his wealth with the miniature of a manuscript he owned. Ultimately, a person's social standing had an influence on the production of the manuscript with regards to illumination and overall quality. This influence can be seen in Chaucer's social position among people as an author, but also in a rich person's position in having a manuscript made. 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 print by Richard Pynson published in 1526, containing The Boke of Caunterbury Tales. These publications were produced using the technique of woodcut and printing, however, this created entire new iterations for Chaucer's work as through different scribes and different translations, the Canterbury Tales were altered and lost parts of the original meaning. Caxton's version was closely followed by Pynson but as time went on the language also began to change, as Pynson changed "hem" to "they" and so on. Furthermore, while the ownership and embellishment of books was still an important element in the 15th century, the increase in mass production made them more widely available to the general public. Prints made in this century were typically made only in black ink, as it was easier and cheaper to make them this way. Although illustrations were still present in the book, they often differed from the descriptions given by Chaucer himself. They were most likely designed as stock figures to fill pages and were often reused in different print publications. In the Canterbury Tales we continually see a further deviation from the author's original intention, as the lighting no longer carries the same illustrative details. Books were slowly becoming a normal thing to have and share, especially with Chaucer's Tales as they were typically read aloud. This ties into the culture surrounding the culture of the time as less emphasis was placed on beautifying the book as it began to shift to the contents of the book and the story in question, rather than beautifying the author and themselves. Here, a late 14th century book will be examined and the early 15th century manuscript of the Ellesmere Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales). This manuscript is an example of high workmanship, with well-lit pages and, above all, illustrations; including Chaucer himself. This is indicative of a very expensive product, most likely ordered by a wealthy patron. The manuscript is made and written on parchment, an animal skin that most likely came from a calf. It has several bindings on both the front and back of the book to protect it from damage, as well as signatures following these pages, most likely previous owners. The manuscript is bound in the traditional format, with the issues aligned and stitched together. This manuscript was most likely lined with ink, as some pages still bear marks of the red ink that would have guided a scribe's writing. The text is said to come from a single scribe, however the illustrations were most likely created by several artists. The first general prologue clearly describes the amount of work necessary to illuminate this manuscript. It is strongly indicative of a later Gothic and humanistic approach, with heavy use of flowery initials, decorative frames surrounding the text, inhabited initials (most famously those depicting Chaucer himself), Celtic knots, gold gilding.