The Leconfield Chaucer, part of the Petworth House Collection Inventory Number 486026. Owned by the National Trust.
This is the second 300 pages of an illuminated manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales which was probably written sometime between 1420 and 1440. Scholars disagree on a specific date of publication. The Chaucer was written in England in one hand and the dialect and spelling include a significant of West Midland and North Midland forms. It is believed to have been held at Petworth for at least 400 hundred years. It came into National Trust ownership when John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont arranged for acceptance of the major portion of the collection at Petworth in lieu of death duties in 1956.