Saturday, March 24, 2012
Owners of the Manuscript
Owners of the Ellesmere Manuscript
Who were the earliest
owners of the Ellesmere Chaucer,
and—more frivolously—which
of them scribbled in the
preliminary flyleaves,
“Margery seynt John
ys a shrew”? (Robertson, p. 5)
By looking at the owners of the Ellesmere manuscript, one can begin to see why it was valuable, the people who cherished it, what the text is worth, and the location in where it was housed. All of these aspects are parts of the book’s history. There is not much evidence for early owners of the manuscript, but in Herbert Shultz’s book The Ellesmere Manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, there seems to be speculation as to the identity of possible early owners of the manuscript. Beginning in the early 17th century, the manuscript comes into the possession of different royal families and neighbors in high classes—dukes and earls.
1.) There is a poem written on flyleaves 2 to 4, written as a tribute to the De Vere family, the earls of Oxford (Shultz, p. 46).
2.) On the first flyleaf of the Ellesmere Chaucer are the names Sir Robert Drury, of his sons, William and Robert, and of his daughters, Anna, Bridget, and Ursula. Also on the same page is written the name of Edward Waldegrave (Shultz, pg. 47).
3.) On folio 130, there is an inscription “per me Henricum Payne” which refers to Henry Payne, a wealthy lawyer. Payne was a friend of the Drurys, and had inherited properties from Robert Drury.
4.) In Payne’s will, a grandson from Ursula Drury Alington, named Sir Giles Alington to whom Payne bequeathed “my Chaucer written on vellum an illumined w golde.” This is the first reference from sources outside the manuscript itself relating to ownership of the Ellesmere Chaucer (Shultz 48).
5.) The manuscript then passed into the Egerton family, earls of Bridgewater. On a flyleaf at the beginning of the volume is the handwriting of the first earl—Sit Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere and Viscount Brackley.
6.) Sir Thomas was the founder of the Bridgewater Library—the oldest large family library in the United Kingdom. The books, manuscripts, and paintins wichi had been houses there were bequesathed to the third duke’s nephew, George Gower, second Marquess of Stafford, along with other estates including the Bridgewater House-Library. The future home of the Ellesmere became Bridgewater house and was known as the Stafford Chaucer. Stafford’s decendents continued possestion of the Bridgewater House Libraryuntil the first World War. During this time, the Earl of Ellesmere in 1914 aold the books and manuscripts to Sotheby & Co. to pay off taxes.
7.) In 1917 Henry E. Huntington decided to purchase the entire Bridgewater Library, including the Ellesmere Chaucer. Huntington was developing his own library, which is know as The Huntington Library and is located in San, Marino, California. The Ellesmere Chaucer has been on exhibition for the public, inside the Huntington Library ever since it was purchased. It rests near another famous book—the Guttenberg Bible.
Thus the owners of the Ellesmere Manuscript were of royalty, so the manuscript must have been valuable because of its design. As mentioned, there were many textbooks being made during the Middle Ages by scribes for students in universities.
Script or Type of Writing
Script or Type of Writing
THE WRITING ON THE PAGE
“Paleography (literally, “ancient writing”) is the study of older forms of handwriting and their evolution over time. Expert paleographers recognize the personal characteristics of individual scribes, such as the idiosyncratic “double slash–dot–double slash” decorative flourishes used by Adam Pinkhurst in the Ellesmere Chaucer. Because most medieval scribes remain unidentified, scholars rely on paleography to establish the dates of manuscripts and the circumstances of their copying. Professional scribes could write in any of several styles of handwriting, depending on the type and content of the text required. The Ellesmere copy of the Canterbury Tales was a work of secular literature written in Middle English rather than Latin and planned as a large-format volume with miniature paintings and elaborate illumination. It uses a large, formal display script known as Anglicana formata.” (Robertson, p. 5).
By the late 13th century, cursiva anglicana was being used for books as well as documents and by the 14th century a relatively formal variant, angelicana formata had evolved for book production. Anglicana formata can be defined as formal cursive script; it is a gothic variation. The gothic script is also known as the Caroline Minuscule; it has more spacing between letters. Later, the words became closer for more angular/distorted look.
The Anglicana Formata has long ascending and descending lines, that are similar to the Bastarda form of cursive writing. There were many different ways of writing manuscripts including the Romanesque and beneventan scripts, gothic scripts, and humanistic scripts. However, the gothic scripts were used for important display books and cursive scripts were used for works that were written more quickly, such as chronicles or histories (Harrison). With the increase in the use of the Middle English language in literary works, it was cursive script that was used for writing the vernacular. This is known as the Bastarda cursive script. This form was used for manuscripts intended for university study, for government and commercial documents, and vernacular literature (Avrin, p.192). The term Bastarda means “lowborn” and it was written faster and appreed more angular thatn standard Gothich (Avrin, p. 192). The type of script used also provides information on the Ellesmere’s history. Since the text is written in cursive script, we can acknowledge that the language of the manuscript is written in vernacular, which is Middle English. This is interesting that there is different writing technique depended on what the text of the manuscript is. The fact that Chaucer’s tales were written with a cursive script also indicate that the text was written quickly. This quickness implies that there were many documents that needed to be copied. Ths Bastarda cursive script writing was a way for scribes to copy works quickly. In another way, the cursive script is for works that need to be written fast. According to Avrin, the cursive script was everyday handwriting: “most people wrote their correspondence and family or public documents on was tablets…in their own everyday cursive script. The everyday “common” language of the text complements the writing of the text, but what does this mean when an ordinary text is embellished in decorative boarders? The decorative boarders suggest that the book is more than everyday vernacular literature.
Scriveners' Company
Scriveners’ Company in 1373
According to Moody, there was a Scriveners' Company after 1373. In the company there was a designated space that a scribe occupied as a shop, subject to guild authority, enforced by the London mayor and his aldermen. Pinkhurst's work was since then narrowly defined. Book-making, on the other hand, was not yet bound by regulation. Moody located documents in the London’s Mercer’s Hall and viewed that in the 1380's, Pinkhurst compiled accounts for the Mercer's Guild. The Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon was a meeting place for the Mercer’s Guild. Moody found that Pinkhurst was involved in a transaction over a tenement adjoining the hospital. Therefore, Mooney speculates that he may have conducted his scribal work out of the hospital (Cambridge). All of this leads to the conclusion that scribe Adam Pinkhurst was a busy freelance professional. He definatly copied Chaucer's works, but he also may have copied the works of other authors, and non-literary texts. We know that textbooks were of high need for the Cathedral schools. Perhaps, Pinkhurst scribed textbooks, because scribe work was his occupation. It is unclear, but it seems that Chaucer did not make his living from writing poetry, like Shakespeare. Therefore, during Pinkhurst’s relationship with Chaucer, he must have been employed by Chaucer, but also moonlighting another job by working for the Mercers’ Company. Chaucer’s poem about Adam could be his disappointment that Pinkhurst had other clients. However, how could Pinkhurst only work for Chaucer? For Pinkhurst, perhaps, he could not have only relied entirely upon Chaucer for his livelihood. Pinkhurst must have had another source of income from different employers requiring copies of a variety of different types of text. (Moody).
Author and Scribe Relationship
Pinkhurst and Chaucer
Adam Pinkhurst is now known as the medieval scribe of London, who copied the work of Chaucer, including the Ellesmere Chaucer and the Hengwt Chaucer manuscripts. According to Mooney, Pinkhurst was Chaucer's copyist for many years. Pinkhurst wanted to join the Scrivener’s Company of London, to learn how to scribe. It has been considered that Pinkhurst may have been the son of a small landowner, brought up a short distance from London, because records exist of property transactions involving an Adam Pinkhurst (could be the scribe’s father) (Ezard). If Pinkhurst’s father lived in London, then he was close enough to visit the city and begin to make a living, by learning the trade for becoming a writer, or copyist.
A medieval scribe worked in the scriptorium--served as the monastic library, or in separate cells called carrels partitioned off of a large room (Avrin, p. 223). The scribe wrote for six hours a day in the daylight and stopped writing at sunset. Inside the scriptorium, silence was the rule, and the scribe made his need for additional materials known to the armarius by hand signals. (p. 223). This would be the normal workplace of the scribe. However, Mooney points out that Chaucer might have wanted to have a private scribe work on his manuscript so he would have creative control. This is similar to authors and illustrators for children’s books today. Some authors must send their written text into the publishing house, and any illustrator will place their artwork alongside the work. Sometimes authors never meet the illustrators, even though they collaborate on work together. This relationship between scribe and author is relevant in one of Chaucer’s poems, that was identified by Mooney as having Adam Pinkhurst as the subject. The poem is titled Chaucer's “Wordes Unto Adam His Own Scriveyne”. The poem focuses on Chaucer scolding Adam for all his errors in composing two earlier manuscript books:
“Adam scrivener, if ever thee befall
Boece or Troilus for to write new [again],
Under thy longe locks thow maist have the scall,
But [unless] after my makinge thou write mor trew,
So oft a day I mot [must] thy werke renewe It to correct, and eke to rubbe and scrape,
And all is thorowe thy necligence and rape [haste].” (Ezard)
The poem appears in only one manuscript, the Cambridge Trinity MS R. 3.20. It was copied in the 1430s by the scribe John Shirley, who gave it the title ‘‘Chaucers Wordes Unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn” (2010, Cambridge). In the poem, Chaucer complains about 'the rubbe and scrape'—he amount of correction that is required on account of Adam's negligence and quickness. He even threatens him with 'scalle', which is a scabby disease of the skin and scalp, if Adam should ever copy Boece and Troilus and Criseyde again in such a way(Cambridge). The poem indicates the practice of scribes, and includes the process where, the work was returned to the author for correction. Since scribe work was in high demand, the fact that 'Adam' worked quickly, could also indicate that he had also other assignments as a scribe.
This poem is historical in which it comments on the possibility that scribes could mishandle the work of author’s. This is a concern for writers of the period, because they had to trust that scribes would not deliberately change/edit the words. This poem also highlights that there was a relationship between author and scribe. Scriptoriums seemed to be used after Chaucer’s death in 1400s, but before writers could work closely with scribes (Ezard). Thus, Adam Pinkhurst was close to Chaucer. In composing the manuscript, Pinkhurst may have discussed the order of the tales with Chaucer, he might have known how Chaucer wanted the work to flow. Thus, because he had contact with Chaucer, the Ellesmere and Hengwt were written by someone who knew and worked directly with the author over many years. These two works are the closest to being accurate. In this case, Pinkhurst knew Chaucer's habits or intentions and therefore reconstructed a manuscript from Chaucer's incomplete work.
Occupation for Scribes
Copyist—A Medieval Occupation
A scribe is not going to spend three years working on a manuscript if Chaucer was not well known, or well respected. The copies of Chaucer’s drafts for the Canterbury Tales were completed quickly and with great care and with beautiful illustration, which suggests that Chaucer may have been well-known in the Middle Ages. Why was the work finished so quickly during a time where few books were available? Did Chaucer have a good reputation, or was his work needed? There is not much history about Chaucer’s involvement with his own people in England, because he was mostly traveling to other countries as a diplomat. According to Avrin, in the Late Middle Ages, there was a need for textbooks: the growth of the cathedral schools and universities created a need for many more texts than ever before. City workshops of scribes and artists began to meet this demand.” (p. 227). The high demand for books to be copied, implies that there was a new job market available for men. The scribe was a trade that many men during the Middle Ages could learn and be hired to do and be paid. It is unclear why Chaucer wrote drafts of his tales, or for whom they were meant, but the fact that during his time there was a high demand for scribes, and books, it is not impossible to think that Chaucer’s tales may have been included as literature of the period. The best question is: who needed books during the Middle Ages? According to Avrin, it was students.
Large Size
Size of Manuscript
Reading was not the only way a person could learn stories in the Middle Ages. Anyone who could not read could always listen to an oral storyteller. The peasants could hear the story from someone who could read to them. Chaucer's theme is storytelling, which suggests that only one person has to read the work aloud. People can hear the story told, like a sermon in church. This is a possible explanation for the large size of the manuscript--it is meant to be read aloud on a podium. Only one copy is needed. The size of the manuscript fits into the Middle ages context because people were attending church regularly so they already aware of preachers, and the idea of oral traditions. People did not have to read for themselves, because they were used to having a priest read to them and interpret sermons. Therefore, people who cannot read can still understand the story if it is read aloud. This idea of the sermon being read aloud relates to the storytelling theme amongst the pilgrims in Canterbury Tales. The era is a precursor to Shakespeare's time, when acting on stage became prominent. People did not have to own a copy of the play, or the poem, instead they would sit, and listen to the story.
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