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.