Colophon

Colophon

I could not find a long list of colophon from the scribe, for the Ellesmere manuscript. Colophon is the inscription recording information relating to the circumstances of the production of a manuscript or printed book. They are generally located at the end of a book (Brown, p. 43). Since identifying Adam Pinkhurst from his signature alone, it is interesting that he did not sign his name at the end of the manuscript. If he had listed his name, then we would not have wondered who Chaucer's Scribe was for years. It has been noted that colophons were not added to every manuscript, or perhaps Adam did sign his name, but the pages were lost or damaged. The colophon usually includes the name of the copyist, title of work, date of completion of the copying, place where it was copied, name of the person for whom the work was copied or whether the scribe copied it for himself, and good wished for the owner and for the copyist (. These are examples of some of the details that could be included in a colophon. By having the colophon we would learn who the book was written for, the audience, when it was written, and more facts that would help us learn the history of the book. We do however learn that it is Chaucer's work. The scribe did not take it upon himself to steal Chaucer's work; instead he gave Chaucer full credit.

In Lelia Avrin's book Scribes, Scripts, and Manuscripts, she identifies the artist as a scribe/illuminator, and suggests that few scribes or illuminators left self-portraits as colophons (p. 224). Since there is a depiction of Chaucer drawn as a pilgrim at the beginning of the Canterbury Tales, this illumination can be considered a colophon. The picture is a replica of what Chaucer might have looked like during the Middle Ages. Since there is no description of the host in the General Prolouge to Canterbury tales, the illuminators drew Chaucer as the host. At the end of the Canterbury Tales is the phrase:

Here is ended the book of the Tales of Caunterbury complied by Geffrey Chaucer of whos soule Jhesu Christ have mercy. Amen.

Since the work mentions his name at the end of the tale, this can also be considered a colophon.