Adam Pinkhurst and the Copying of British Library, MS Additional 35287 of the B Version of Piers Plowman

Abstract

British Library, MS Additional 35287 [M] is an early fifteenth-century copy of the B text of Piers Plowman which has been heavily corrected by a contemporary scribe. In this essay I argue that the hand responsible for these corrections is that also responsible for copying the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, recently identified by Linne Mooney as the professional London scrivener Adam Pinkhurst. The remainder of the essay then considers the implications of this identification for our understanding of Pinkhurst’s role in the London book trade and the production of early copies of the B version of Piers Plowman.