The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest of the Old English Poetic Codices, one of the others being the Junius manuscript, is one of the how many major codices of Old English literature?
Vercelli Book The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest of the four Old English Poetic Codices (the others being the Junius manuscript, the Exeter Book, and the Nowell Codex). It is an anthology of Old English prose and verse that dates back to the late 10th century. The manuscript is housed in the Capitulary Library of Vercelli, in northern Italy.
The Pilgrim's Tale The Pilgrim's Tale is an English anti-monastic poem. It was probably written ca. 1536–38, since it makes references to events in 1534 and 1536 – i.e., the Lincolnshire Rebellion – and borrows from The Plowman's Tale and the 1532 text by William Thynne of Chaucer's "Romaunt of the Rose", which is cited by page and line. It remains the most mysterious of the pseudo-Chaucerian texts. In his 1602 edition of the "Works of Chaucer", Thomas Speght mentions that he hoped to find this elusive text. A prefatory advertisement to the reader in the 1687 edition of the "Works" speaks of an exhaustive search for "The Pilgrim's Tale", which had proved fruitless.