MS 314 (c. 1450–70) is something of an infamous manuscript among Chaucer scholars. At first glance, it seems like a fairly standard copy of the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s famous unfinished poem. Absent the illuminations and gilding of more celebrated manuscripts such as the Ellesmere, the simple rubrication of MS 314 might even strike readers as plain. However, it takes only a brief page-through to realise that this manuscript is hardly as tight-laced as its stiff binding would suggest.

New College Library, Oxford, MS 314, f. 82v [detail]

New College Library and Archives, Oxford