The language and copying practices of three early
\nmedieval cartulary scribes At Worcester

This thesis investigates the factors that influence the ways in which scribes copied Old
\nEnglish in charter texts. These factors include: the training scribes received in learning to
\nwrite Old English and to copy texts; the role of the Anglo-Saxon scriptorium and the
\nenvironment in which scribes worked; and the role of training and scriptorial influence in
\nthe development of a scribe’s written system. This investigation has highlighted, in
\nparticular, the lack of information about how scribes were trained in Old English compared
\nto what is known of their training in Latin and in script acquisition.
\nTo investigate these factors, this thesis uses a comparative study of the work of the
\nscribe of the eleventh-century Worcester Nero Middleton cartulary, copying the texts S
\n1280 and S 1556 from the early eleventh-century cartulary Liber Wigorniensis. The data is
\ntaken directly from the manuscripts and from original transcriptions of each charter copy,
\nwhich provides evidence not available in editions.
\nThis study demonstrates the worth of studying later copies of texts, in particular of
\ncharters. It also shows the wealth of information to be found in the work of copying
\nscribes. The study of the Nero Middleton scribe’s work has shown that scribal copying is
\nnot simply the application of one system (the copying scribe’s) onto another (the
\nexemplar’s). In the two texts studied, this scribe exhibits different behaviours, varying in
\nways which are not the result of influence from their exemplar, but which suggest that their
\ncopying style and written system is changeable. From this it can be concluded that the
\nscribes underwent some training in writing Old English which formalized aspects of their
\nwritten conventions, but that much of the scribes’ conventions appear to have been
\ninfluenced by the collaborative environment of the scriptorium in which they worked.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.