The Poet and the Antiquaries: Chaucerian Scholarship and the Rise of Literary History, 1532–1635

In The Poet and the Antiquaries: Chaucerian Scholarship and the Rise of Literary History, 1532–1635, Megan L. Cook argues that the exceptional status Chaucer occupies in medieval studies and literary history can be traced back to the way he was seen by early–modern antiquaries. Her aim is not to affirm Chaucer's status but “to explain it, with the hopes that in doing so we might not only understand Chaucer better, but consider anew the way the reception and transmission of his works have shaped, and continue to shape, the field of English literary history writ large” (204). Cook achieves this aim by focusing on the books in which the poet's works circulated between 1532 and 1635 and those who made them and read them. Thus The Poet and the Antiquaries delivers on its title's promise by integrating methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines to analyze both literary...