Scribe D’s SW Midlands Roots: A Reconsideration.

This article reconsiders the dialect evidence presented by the manuscripts copied by the prolific copyist known as Scribe D, responsible for copying the Ilchester manuscript of the C version of PPl. Previous studies of his dialect have argued that the layer of South-West Midlands forms found in the manuscripts he copied demonstrated that he originated in Worcestershire. In this article Horobin and Mosser argue that the SWM forms derive from his exemplars rather than from his own dialect, and that the scribe was probably a native Londoner rather than an immigrant. This view of Scribe D as a literatim copyist who faithfully reproduced his copytext compels a reassessment of recent views of this scribe and his contribution to the Ilchester manuscript and its unique prologue.