Chaucer goes digital as British Library makes works available online

"The entire collection of Geoffrey Chaucer’s works held by the British Library is being made available in digital format after the completion of a two and a half year project to upload 25,000 images of the often elaborately illustrated medieval manuscripts. In a 'major milestone' for the library, which holds the world’s largest surviving collection of Chaucer, it is hoped the digital platform will enable new research into the 14th-century poet, courtier, soldier, diplomat, and MP who is most famous for his Middle English epic, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer, who died in 1400, was proclaimed by his contemporary poet Thomas Hoccleve as the 'firste fyndere of our fair language' and is widely regarded as the father of English poetry. He was, in essence, the first poet laureate, being rewarded by Edward III with a gallon of wine daily for an unspecified task, thought to be for poetic work or works. He was also the first to be buried in what became Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. The British Library holds more than 60 items related to his works and life, and has now digitised them all. ..."

Guardian

A detail from The Canterbury Pilgrims in a medieval edition of the book by Chaucer.