Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manuscript (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a compilation of my posts on Valentine’s Day—the first four posts—or posts related to Valentine’s Day. I would suggest you open Valentine’s Day: Martyrs & Birds first, particularly if you do not have the time to read more than one post. Originally these posts did not feature an embedded video.  I have now embedded my melodies.

A Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!

On Geoffrey Chaucer and St Valentine’s Day

As we know, Valentine’s Day was not a romantic day until Chaucer made it so.  In The Parlement of Foules (1882), Chaucer wrote

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

[“For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”]

The above illumination is from one of the 86 manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, the Ellesmere Manuscript.  Included among these 86 manuscripts is William Caxton’s printing of the Tales, one of the earliest printed books: 1478.  Very early printed works, published between 1450 and 1501, are called incunables.

Johannes Gutenberg (1398 – February 3, 1468) is considered the first printer (c. 1439).  Early printers, printers of incunables, sometimes left blank spaces where enluminures or illuminations were inserted.  Historiated first letters are quite common in incunables.

Historiated Initial, click to enlarge

RELATED POSTS:

• Valentine’s Day: Martyrs & Birds ←
• From Lupercalia to Valentine’s Day
• On Chaucer & St Valentine’s Day
• Chaucer on Valentine’s Day & the Art of Antonio Canova
• Le Roman de la Rose
• A Tapestry: The Lady & the Unicorn
• The Lady & the Unicorn: the Six Senses
• Charles d’Orléans: Portrait of an Unlikely Poet
• Pastorals: of Shepherds & Shepherdesses

—ooo—

John Dowland‘s “Goe from my window”

© Micheline Walker