GOWER, John (c.1325-1408). De Confessione Amantis. London: Thomas Berthelet, 1554.

GOWER, John (c.1325-1408). De Confessione Amantis. London: Thomas Berthelet, 1554.

An early edition of Gower’s major contribution to English literature. One of the most copied manuscripts before the invention of the printing press, Gower’s poem—modeled on Boethius’s De consolatione philosphiae—is a series of stories framed as the confession of an aging lover to a chaplain of the goddess of love. Gower may have been influenced in his use of the English language by Chaucer, to whom the work is dedicated. This third edition is a reprint of the second, which was "textually an improvement over the earlier one. It is also a good example of workmanlike printing, much above the average English work of the period." C. S. Lewis praised Gower's "sweetness and freshness." STC (2nd ed.), 12144; Pforzheimer 422.

Folio (245 x 168mm). Woodcut title border, woodcut initials (corners of title and first few leaves repaired, occasional staining, scattered shaving to headlines). 19th-century mottled calf (spine dry and chipped). Provenance: early annotations, some cropped – J. E. Watson (bookplate).