More Manuscripts by the Beryn Scribe and His Cohort

The Beryn Scribe is the copyist of the unique copy of the Tale of Beryn in Alnwick Castle, Duke of Northumberland MS 455 of the Canterbury Tales. He has been identified as a prolific copyist of the Middle English prose Brut, and he produced single copies of the Prick of Conscience, Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls, and Lydgate’s Life of Our Lady. He was recently identified as the hand of the paper section of Princeton University MS 100 (the Helmingham manuscript of the Canterbury Tales). In this article, using paleographical, spelling, and textual evidence, Mosser and Mooney identify him as the copyist of the parchment section of Princeton University MS 100, and also of the “Oxford fragments” of the Canterbury Tales and the Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson C.901 copy of the Brut. They also associate this scribe with several other manuscript productions.