Chaucer's Londoners: 'a compaignye of sondry folk'
Friday 13 October 2000 - Sunday 7 January 2001

Geoffrey Chaucer, one of London's most celebrated poets, died at the end of October 1400. The Museum of London marks this 600th anniversary with a Capital concerns display looking at the life and times of Chaucer and the characters in Chaucer's most famous work, The Canterbury Tales.

Original objects from the period bring to life a group of Londoners as they set off on a pilgrimage to Canterbury from the Tabard Inn, Southwark. Among them are the ladylike Prioress with her fondness for pet dogs, the Pardoner with his fake holy relics and the Canon who claimed he could change base metal into silver.

Highlights on display include a fine 15th-century manuscript of The Canterbury Tales and a page from Caxton's printing of 1476, now recognised as the first English book to be printed in England. A large carved panel depicting the Pardoner's Tale is also on show.