The Language, Hands, and Interaction of the Two Scribes of the Egerton 2726 Chaucer Manuscript (En1)

Daniel W. Mosser examines British Library Egerton MS 2726 (En1) to reconstruct the collaborative production practices behind a fifteenth-century Canterbury Tales manuscript and to challenge assumptions about scribal supervision and workshop hierarchy derived from earlier scholarship. Rather than treating En1 primarily as a textual surrogate for Cambridge Dd.4.24, Mosser focuses on the interaction of its two scribes, whose hands and dialects are strikingly similar yet distinguishable through detailed paleographical analysis. By isolating consistent differences in letter-forms, duct, and layout, Mosser demonstrates that two individuals shared the copying of the manuscript, likely dividing the exemplar for simultaneous work.

Mosser re-evaluates Manly and Rickert’s claim that En1 shows evidence of external proof-reading by a third party or workshop supervisor. Through close analysis of corrections, ink usage, and the distinctive “examinatur” marks, he argues instead that Scribe 2 acted as both copyist and proof-reader, correcting not only his own work but also that of Scribe 1. This model replaces hierarchical assumptions of shop supervision with a more economical and plausible account of internal collaboration between scribes of comparable training.

Linguistic analysis further reinforces this interpretation. Both scribes consistently “translate” their exemplars into a shared East Anglian dialect localized to the Colchester area, suggesting common regional background and scribal habits rather than mechanical copying. Minor shifts in spelling preferences are plausibly explained by changes in exemplars rather than changes in scribal identity or policy.

Mosser concludes that En1 exemplifies a collaborative, flexible mode of manuscript production that resists rigid models of textual authority, underscoring the importance of integrating paleography, dialectology, and material analysis in reconstructing the history of Chaucer’s text