What John Shirley said about Adam: authorship and attribution in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.20

Margaret Connolly

doi:10.14220/9783737007542.81

What John Shirley said about Adam: authorship and attribution in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.20

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

The scribe John Shirley copied many short Middle English poems, including several by Geoffrey Chaucer, and is often either the earliest or the only copyist to provide authorship ascriptions. Cambridge Trinity College MS R.3.20 uniquely preserves the single stanza known as 'Adam Scriveyn'. Since the identification of Adam Pinkhurst as the scribe of the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, these seven lines of verse, and Shirley's claim that they are addressed to Chaucer's 'own scribe' have received renewed critical attention, and Shirley's reliability has again been questioned. This essay reassesses Shirley's Chaucerian ascriptions, paying close attention to the Trinity manuscript and its later reception.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript
Subtitle of host publication	Text Collections from a European Perspective
Editors	Karen Pratt, Bart Besamusca, Matthias Meyer, Ad Putter
Place of Publication	Gottingen
Publisher	V&R Unipress
Pages	81-100
Number of pages	20
ISBN (Electronic)	9783737007542
ISBN (Print)	9783847107545
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737007542.81
Publication status	Published - 26 Jul 2017

Keywords

Middle English literature
Geoffrey Chaucer
John Shirley
Adam Scriveyn
Authorship
Manuscript

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10.14220/9783737007542.81Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Connolly_2017_DynamicsMediManu_Chapter_CCBY-VoR
© 2017, V&R unipress GmbH. This is an open access publication licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND international 4.0 licence
Final published version, 4.49 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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abstract = "The scribe John Shirley copied many short Middle English poems, including several by Geoffrey Chaucer, and is often either the earliest or the only copyist to provide authorship ascriptions. Cambridge Trinity College MS R.3.20 uniquely preserves the single stanza known as 'Adam Scriveyn'. Since the identification of Adam Pinkhurst as the scribe of the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, these seven lines of verse, and Shirley's claim that they are addressed to Chaucer's 'own scribe' have received renewed critical attention, and Shirley's reliability has again been questioned. This essay reassesses Shirley's Chaucerian ascriptions, paying close attention to the Trinity manuscript and its later reception.",

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What John Shirley said about Adam: authorship and attribution in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.20. / Connolly, Margaret.
The Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript: Text Collections from a European Perspective. ed. / Karen Pratt; Bart Besamusca; Matthias Meyer; Ad Putter. Gottingen: V&R Unipress, 2017. p. 81-100.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

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What John Shirley said about Adam: authorship and attribution in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.20

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Keywords

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