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).