The images on this site are listed chronologically by either editor, illustrator, title, or author depending on the source; and since everything has been scanned from books, magazines, or prints in my collection it is possible the dates listed are not the initial publication dates. If it seems to me that it is easier for someone to find the images by first accessing the edition, then the images are listed by editor and edition. If the images are to be found in a magazine then they are listed and grouped under the title of the magazine. They are only listed by artist if the prints are not part of a separate publication such as the prints of John Mortimer. If you run your cursor along the dates at the top of the page, you will find drop-down menus. When you get to the decade you want, slide your cursor down to the year or the edition you are looking for and then click. You will then be taken to the page holding images for that particular book, magazine, or print.
The bibliographical information for the book or magazine is to be found on the initial web page for that book, and the images are labeled as follows: The page of the book on which the print is found followed by either the title of that print or the tale or poem the image is meant to illustrate. For example, the image labeled “177-The Tabard Inn” refers to page 177 of the September 21, 1833 issue of The Mirror magazine and is an etching of the Tabard Inn. The bibliographical information for The Mirror is found separately on the same page.
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This work in progress attempts to document the way Chaucer and his works have been imagined in print from Caxton to the twentieth century. For speed of loading, and the amount of space I am allowed by WordPress, each picture is usually less than 100K rather than the 500K to five meg original images I have on my computer; so if you need a higher resolution image please let me know.
Robert Simola,
Collector of editions of Chaucer and chauceriana.
(rsimola@yahoo.com)
Chaucer Editions 
Hi — there’s a new one coming in 2016 !!!
from The Bradford Exchange Press
email me for more info — TOM
My dear Robert, I have just discovered your “Chaucer Editions” and feel rather stunned: what a wealth of resources you have given us so freely. I look forward to browsing your editions for many hours in the future and to sharing them with my students at Marymount California University. Many, many thanks for your generosity and scholarly work!
Dr Charles W Spurgeon, professor emeritus, cspurgeon@marymountcalifornia.edu
Dear Mr. Simola, This is a wonderful site and collection! thank you very much for your generosity in sharing these images and bibliographic details. yours, Andy Galloway (English prof., Cornell U)
Thank you for your kind words. While I am just a Chaucerian manque, I do have about 2,000 separate editions of the works of Chaucer (including yours) so if you find yourself in need of images more recent than 1923, please let me know.
Dear Professor Galloway:
I now have another web site you might be interested in at https://wordpress.com/view/chaucerlibrary.com>
I got tired of trying to read some of the digitized material that are dirty or poorly done and decided to clean up, redo, rescan, or transcribe translations, modernizations, adaptations, and others that are just playing in Chaucer’s garden. They are in .pdf files on my Chaucer Library web site.
Robert Simola
Dear Mr. Simola, I am at a loss for words. What an absolutely stunning collection! I love sharing Chaucer’s tales with my high school level literature students, and was on a search for a public domain modern version to which I could direct them as an aid for their reading. Instead, I found a treasure trove in your images and details that is certain to spark more interest than I could have ever hoped. Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing this with us all.
Cara Shelton
Cara,
Thank you. I too was a high school English teacher. Do you know the MIchael Murphy modern spelling version? When I had my l students read selections of The Canterbury Tales I would give them seven or eight different translations along with Murphy’s modern spelling version and ask my students to choose which they would rather read and to explain the reasoning behind their choice. They would overwhelmingly choose Murphy’s version as being the most understandable, and since only the spelling is changed from Chaucer’s original text, they were also getting the real Canterbury Tales instead of a translation. I actually didn’t care which they choose. It was my nefarious plot to get them to re-read the material since I knew if I could get them to read something seven or eight times there wouldn’t be any problem with them learning the material and having the material stick.
I am not familiar with the Michael Murphy version – but I just ordered it. It sounds like the perfect blend of aiding the students without watering down the text! Thank you so much for the tip. What a brilliant plot indeed!
One of my assignments requires students to choose a section of an assigned Tale and do their own “translation” using the OED and several other resources. (Which we then compare with a select few modern versions.) It never fails that, exactly as you say, close attention to the text bears fruit of understanding — and much of the time it results in a spark of affection that I hope will lead to many return visits to Canterbury!
Hi Robert – what an amazing body of work , congratulations
Hello Dr Simola, this is a wonderful collection! Thank you for becoming obsessed with the art of collecting and the brilliance of Chaucer’s texts. As you say, Chaucer is an author who keeps on being read. How fortunate for all of us that you found that edition of Urry, widely regarded as the ‘very worst edition’ of Chaucer. There is much to admire here among these pages and I know I’ll be back to browse and be delighted. Many thanks again, Jenna Mead