The modern mind, strongly rooted in the print culture of the last few centuries, immediately wants to call this an ‘incomplete’ manuscript. In this manuscript, portraits of the Cook, Friar, Manciple, and Franklin, were all clearly intended but have been left out in the process of manufacturing. Similarly, on folio 200, we find a gap beginning at the top of the manuscript and ending with the sentence Here begyneth the prolog of the ffrankeleyne.
Presumably, then, the plan was to place a portrait of the Friar to fill in this gap. For example, on folio 102, the gap in the manuscript comes between the rubricated sentences Here endith the gode wifes tale of Bathe and Here begynneth the prolog of the ffrere. The reason behind such premeditated gaps seems to be an intention to fill them with a portrait of the upcoming speaker. The gaps in Harley 1758 (found on folios 45v, 102, 127 and 200) all fall between the end of one character’s tale and the beginning of another’s. Such gaps were clearly intentional at some stage in the process and similar blank spaces can be found in other manuscripts from the Middle Ages. While finely decorated and illuminated, there are notable gaps throughout the manuscript. It seems to have been written by three distinct scribes and then corrected by a supervisor of sorts. It was produced sometime between 14 and contains a copy of the Canterbury Tales, including the spurious Tale of Gamelyn.
Take for example the manuscript British Library Harley 1758.
However, such a categorical binary has not always been the case, and in the medieval world books were rarely ‘published’ in the way we’ve come to understand. This is one of the many ways to dichotomize two of today’s major competing media.
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