Joseph A. Dane examines the history of the books we now know as "Chaucer's"--a history that includes printers and publishers, editors, antiquarians, librarians, and book collectors. The Chaucer at issue here is not a medieval poet, securely bound within his fourteenth-century context, but rather the product of the often chaotic history of the physical books that have been produced and marketed in his name.

Joseph A Dane is Professor of English at the University of Southern California. He is author of The Critical Mythology of Irony, Parody: Critical Concepts vs. Literary Practices, and numerous articles on Chaucer and the history of printing.