Add MS 78175

EVELYN PAPERS. Vol. VIII. Abridged accounts of the Barbary Company; 21 June 1585-15 Feb. 1589. Fair copy.Imperfect at beginning and end. These were compiled from annual accounts submitted by individual members and servants of the Company (cf. the ‘Callender’ on f. 1, and the ledger- and folio-references added on most pages). The earliest date in the manuscript relates to the payment of four thousand pounds by Leicester to ‘Malley Hammet [i.e. Mulay Ahmed] Emperor of Morocus’ in connection with a quadripartite indenture of 21 June 1585. A series of notes towards the end (p. 136), of which the latest is dated 15 Feb. 1588/9, mention the Company’s secretary, Richard Mayes, and list sums paid for various royal letters, accounts and ‘wrytinges for the matters of Barbary’. Formerly Evelyn MS 155.

ff. 74. Text transcribed in a single secretary hand (cf. Add. MS 78174 above), with references and some marginal notes in another. Contemporary pagination in ink from 1 to 140. Watermark a bunch of grapes with letters ‘A G’ at base, similar to Briquet no. 13163 (dated to 1580-1589), as Add. MS 78177 below. Imperfect owing to the excision of most of the first leaf (f. 1), which formerly comprised a calendar of the first and second years’ accounts, along with the last two leaves, now represented by stubs, which were replaced by a bifolium. The partial heading surviving on the original penultimate leaf reads ‘Abridgment ... / the 4 years acc[ompte]’, while further accounts are visible on the verso. Front cover inscribed in Evelyn’s hand. Contemporary binding of limp vellum with single leather tie. Covers secured to gatherings by four leather thongs, with ancillary stitching, all sewn through spine. 425 x 285 mm.