The Gibberish Scribe

For the Defining Europe project we are interested in how manuscripts travelled, who owned them and who might have been familiar with their contents. Signs of previous ownership are a great help in recreating the life of these manuscripts and provide information on the context in which the manuscripts have been used. However, tracing the original location of a medieval manuscript is difficult in the abundance of cases. Even if the manuscripts are in possession of a mark of ownership, this does not mean that the manuscript was originally created at said location, simply that it has at some point been part of that particular collection.

Other than marks of ownership, scribal signatures can be a huge help to get a grip on the context in which this manuscript functioned. Questions like ‘what else did this scribe write?’, ‘can we determine when this was? And where this was? Maybe even for whom?’ all play an important part in this process. Unfortunately for the modern day researcher, medieval scribes were a lot less inclined to write their own name on the texts they produced than modern day authors would be. In many cases it is only because of the talent of palaeographers, who manage to define specific personal characteristics for each scribal hand, that certain manuscripts can be linked together. This is, for example, the case with manuscript Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, 5267b. Palaeographical evidence has shown that the scribe of this manuscript is the same person who wrote manuscripts Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Llanstephan 2, and Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth 47iv. Luckily for us, Llanstephan 2 has a scribal signature on folio 37. The text is said to be written by ‘Jbnkkn xbb dbykd xbb gryffyth’. We have seemingly struck a dead end and find ourselves confronted with gibberish. Or have we? Rather than simply writing non-existent words, this scribe has left his audience a puzzle before his identity can truly be revealed. As Rebecca Try points out,this particular signature is written in code. The scribe made use of a cipher in which each vowel is replaced with the first consent that follows it in the alphabet. An a thus becomes b, and u or v become x. When deciphered, Jbnkkn xbb dbykd xbb gryffyth becomes Jancyn vab Davyd vab Gryffyth, which gives us a new piece of information.

Select Bibliography

J.G. Evans, ‘Llanstephan 2’, in:Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Languagevol. 2 (London 1902) 420-422.

J.G. Evans, ‘Peniarth 47iv’, in:Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language vol. 2 (London 1902) 380-382.

Daniel Huws, Medieval Welsh Manuscripts (Cardiff 2000) 61.

Rebecca Try, NLW MS 5267B; a partial transcription and commentary (Dissertation Welsh and Celtic Studies, Cardiff 2015) 2-5. https://orca.cf.ac.uk/87953/1/Rebecca%20Try%20Final%20MPhil%20Dissertation.pdf

A digital catalogue entry for manuscript Aberyswyth, National Library of Wales, NLW MS 5267b can be found at: https://archives.library.wales/index.php/y-casgliad-brith; Llanstephan 2 at: https://archives.library.wales/index.php/burial-of-arthur-travels-of-odoricus-c ; Peniarth 47iv at: https://archives.library.wales/index.php/dares-phrygius.

Post by Kiki Calis