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And we're under way with the latest seminar with @stickybears and @TraceLarkhall discussing the Records of Early English Drama, Civic London, 1558-1642: https://ereed.library.utoronto.ca/ https://twitter.com/TraceLarkhall/status/1349407556368801793
You can read more about the current work being discussed this evening here: https://civiclondon.wordpress.com/
And if you're not familiar with @REED_Project then here is a very quick introduction of its aims and methods:
And here is what you get - detailed transcriptions of material describing 'dramatic' activity, drawn from the archives. @REED_Project has come to London only relatively recently (because it's big, complicated and part of the point was to look for activity outside the capital).
So what's being covered? As followers of @LayersofLondon will know, London, even in the 16th century was not confined to the area within the city walls and the various organisations associated with the city and its suburbs.
And the range of documents is *huge*. So here's something from week one and the records of the Pewterer's Company - which resulted in not only a record but a nice @OED antedating of the word 'Dromsler' which you'll have to look up...
And now to @stickybears who is discussing some of the changes and continuity evident in London from the Middle Ages into the 16th and 17th centuries.
The key event (or process) of course was thee Reformation and Edward VI's abolition of Chantries which the Livery Companies saw as an existential threat - not least because the companies held their own chantries, shared premises with them and *looked* quite like chantries...
And exhibited models, images, and dedications to patronal saints, like this figure of St George that survived multiple waves of iconoclasm and survives today with the Armourers' Company (it was made in the 1530s).
[special guest appearance from @TraceLarkhall's cat]
And here is an account of the role that St George (and the boy player who played him) took in the election of the master of the company:
And a nice reference in the accounts to the figure of St George we met a couple of tweets ago:
The repeated nature of these events - and the public display - means that mending of items associated with these dramatic events are some of the most common sources. An example from the Brewers' Company:
But as well as ceremonies, minstrels and music there are players and plays (and if you have ideas about *which* hospital is meant, do drop the team a line - Christ's Hospital?).
The places of performance are also important (here from the Agas map which you can explore in more detail @LayersofLondon: https://www.layersoflondon.org/ (along with lots of other fantastic mapping resources).
If you've been keeping up with this thread, you'll know we have had cats (Smudge, Jarvis), but also some fantastic documentary beasts, from Robert Haez, curate of St Botolphs, Aldgate.
