The Oxford Handbook of the History of the Book in Early Modern England is apparently out now. The table of contents looks really good (see thread), but at a couple of hundred dollars I don't think I'll be getting my own copy, even if "Guilliam's Heraldry" does make an appearance in the cover image!

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-the-history-of-the-early-modern-book-in-england-9780198846239?cc=us&lang=en

#EarlyModern #BookHistory #Guillim

Serendipity strikes again!
I've found another manuscript containing the texts in my "Discommodities" cluster

The other day I was listening to an interview of @overholt on a student podcast, and part-way through he mentioned the Houghton's visting fellowships. This prompted me to go and check Harvard's catalogue. I didn't find any MSS of relevance to m, there, but started looking at other US libraries with fellowship programs, which led me back to Yale's Beinecke Library.

I had previously ordered a copy of a Guillim-related MS, but couldn't remember the spelling (turns out it was Gwyllym), so entered Funerals as the keyword instead, and came across an entry for a MS of "Ancient orders and ceremonies respecting the processions, funerals, habiliments of the several degrees of noble estate" by Sir John Harington

Turns out this is BL Add MS 27632, and it has been digitised as part of the EEBO Tracts supplement

#BookHistory #Guillim #Beinecke #Heraldry

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ZO1aW8MMLxC2z9fYGi6hA?si=5q68vXApTpuYbO05SRtukg&nd=1

But even better, the TNA catalogue lists an entry for "a statute from John Caldicott to John Gwillim" in the Duchess of Norfolk Deeds collection.

These are papers of the Scudamore family, with whom Guillim had a connection (The collection includes two letters from Guillim to Sir John Scudamore)

I had seen this entry previously, but had thought the connection too tenuous to be worth requesting a copy. In light of this new information though, it has moved up the list.

#Archives #Guillim

My Court of Requests case from 1600 involving John Guillim is the archival document that keeps on giving.

At one point the defendant says "one Henrie Blome gent did pretend the said landes by vertue of a statute knoweledged by the Complaynant & had a liberate therof"

This somewhat cryptic sentence means that Guillim had made a financial transaction with Blome, secured by a "recognizance in the nature of a statute merchant". This was a stronger form of bond, and if he defaulted, allowed the debt to be recovered from his goods or lands. That is what happened here, and Blome sued out a writ of Liberate.
(h/t to the UK National Archives for the very helpful administrative background section in the catalogue entry)

The key point is that these recognizances had to be recorded, and the entry books survive in The National Archives, in series LC 4, which could lead me to further information.

#EarlyModern #Archives #Guillim #StatuteMerchant #LegalHistory