Main Menu | List of entries | finished

ADAM2. Adam Scriveyne, or Adam the scrivener, was Chaucer's copyist. Several Adams have been suggested: Adam Stedeman, a London goldsmith, employed by John Walsshe to write his will, c. 1360-1475; Adam Acton; and Adam Pinkhurst. Adam may also be a generic name for all scriveners, following a tradition that made Adam the inventor of letters.

Chaucer wishes the "scalle," a disease of the scalp, on Adam, his scrivener, if he does not copy Boece or Troilus more accurately than hitherto, Adam 1-7.

The name appears initially, Adam 1.


R. Bressie, TLS, May 9, 1929: 383; Chaucer, The Minor Poems, Part One, ed. G.B. Pace and A. David, 133-134; R.E. Kaske, "Clericus Adam and Chaucer's Adam Scriveyn," Chaucerian Problems and Perspectives, ed. E. Vasta and Z.P. Thundy, 114-118; J.M. Manly, TLS, May 16, 1929: 403; B.M. Wagner, TLS, June 13, 1929: 474.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

Main Menu | List of entries | finished