One Scribe or Two? On the Copying of Sir Gawayn and the Carl of Carlisle in NLW Brogyntyn ii.1

Abstract

ABSTRACT National Library of Wales Brogyntyn ii.1 (Porkington 10) is a fifteenth-century miscellany copied by a considerable number of scribes, though there is no consensus on the exact number. In the copying of Sir Gawayn and the Carl of Carlisle, some scholars have identified two scribes, others just one. This paper analyses different language levels within this poem with the objective of determining the likelihoods of having one or two scribes for this section of the codex. This is the first study to offer a detailed comparison between ff. 12r-22v and 23r-6r and other stints undoubtedly copied by the same scribe of 12r-22v. It presents data extracted from the manuscript which ultimately reveal different scribal patterns in the poem with respect to palaeographical and orthographic habits, although these do not signal dialectal differences in the localisation of the fragments.