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The Collation

Manuscript reunions

Sometimes we come across a manuscript on the market that looks vaguely familiar, and sends us scrambling to Hamnet to figure out why. I was reminded of this last week when a bookseller offered us a “naval return for Queen Elizabeth I signed by Fulke Greville” (in his capacity as Treasurer of the Navy), consisting of the naval charges at Deptford for September 1600. Turns out we already have six such items, cataloged as Folger MS X.d.201 (1-6). When I went down to the vault to compare these manuscripts to the images sent by the bookseller, I experienced a small jolt of recognition.

First, here’s the image of the naval expense summary we just purchased, front and back (click on any image to enlarge it):