Written between 1387 and 1400 by Geoffrey Chaucer, an English royal court
poet, The Canterbury Tales legitimized the literary use of Middle English, since
most texts at the time were written in Latin. Chaucer is considered the father
of English literature. The Canterbury Tales describes the journeys of a group
of pilgrims from all levels of medieval society who are traveling to St. Thomas
Becket’s shrine in Canterbury. Although there are 24 tales in total, Chaucer
never completed The Canterbury Tales and never noted an overall order for the
tales. The page displayed here is one of just eleven leaves in the collection of the
Rosenbach, which are almost all that remain of the Oxford manuscript. The tales
that remain are the Cook’s Tale, the Reeve’s Tale, and the Man of Law’s Tale.