Geoffrey Chaucer Time-Off Request Likely His Actual Handwriting: Prof

A time-off request from the 14th century is likely the only handwriting of Geoffrey Chaucer's still surviving, a leading academic says. The note (in which Chaucer, a civil servant, requested a leave of absence from King Richard II) is not a new discovery in and of itself, the Guardian explains; rather, it was believed to have been written by a clerk on behalf of the Canterbury Tales author.

But, according to Canadian scholar Professor Richard Green, Chaucer had no clerical staff and was expected to do his own work-related documentation. "Employing a professional scrivener for such a document would be like hiring a lawyer to write an inter-office memo," he says. See more at the Guardian. (Middle Age pay stubs show Chaucer was paid in wine.)