It was on this day in 1400 that the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer died (books by this author). No one is exactly sure when he was born, but he was probably about 60 years old when he died. Chaucer had spent his life working as a civil servant. His longest-held position was as Comptroller of Customs, which meant that he kept the books on export taxes for all of the wool, sheepskin, and leather that went through the Port of London. His position ended in 1386, and he seems to have been out of work for three years. He probably began The Canterbury Tales during that period, before he was hired as the Clerk of the Kings Works in 1389. When he died in 1400, the Canterbury Tales was unfinished. The Canterbury Tales is among the first English literary work to mention the use of paper. Books of Chaucers day were written by hand on scraped and stretched animal skins, and a large Bible could require hundreds of animals to complete, making the distribution of written materials impractical and expensive. For this reason, none of Chaucers writing was printed in his day, and it is likely that his manuscripts were only circulated among his friends and remained unknown to most people until well after his death.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:58:06 +0000
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