The Scribe of Bodleian Library MS Digby 102 and the Circulation of the C Text of Piers Plowman

This essay offers an identification of the scribe responsible for copying one of the best manuscripts of the C text, Bodleian Library MS Dibgy 102, as a clerk working for the Brewers’ Guild during the opening decades of the fifteenth century. The identification is based upon a detailed palaeographical analysis of the handwriting of Digby 102 and the memorandum book of the London Brewers’ Guild. The remainder of the article considers the significance of this identification for an understanding of the copying and transmission of the C version, especially among communities of professional London scribes and guild clerks. Finally, the essay considers the relationship between this copy of PPl and other texts copied into the Digby manuscript, including Richard Maidstone’s Seven Penitential Psalms and the Digby lyrics. (SH)