A word cloud of the first draft of my dissertation (courtesy of Wordle).

I’ve been reading Kevin Sharpe’s excellent Reading Revolutions, and came across a footnote drawing attention to a woodcut initial on an early proclamation by Charles II. Sharpe contrasts the imagery it uses with what had come before it during the Commonwealth:

It reminded me of another footnote about another royal proclamation, this one by Charles I, in John Adamson’s Noble Revolt. Most royal proclamations from 1640 to 1642 have plain, ornamental woodcuts, such as this ‘W’ typically used for ‘Whereas’.

However, A proclamation for the attendance of the members in both houses in Parliament used this woodcut initial:

It shows Hercules battling the many-headed hydra, something that becomes significant when you consider that the proclamation was issued on 12 December 1641 – just after the printing of the Grand Remonstrance (Parliament’s appeal to the people against Charles I), at a time when crowds were massed outside Westminster and a flurry of popular petitions were arriving at Parliament. To many political grandees, the danger of the many-headed monster would have foremost in their minds. Sir Edward Dering famously objected that ‘I did not dream that we should remonstrate downeward, tell stories to the people, and talke of the King as of a third person‘. Sir John Culpeper wrote in his diary that ‘this is a Remonstrance to the people. Remonstrances ought to be to the king for redress…. Wee [are] not sent to please the people’.

There are a few other examples of initials being paired appropriately with their content. Here is the woodcut from A proclamation prohibiting the payment and receipt of customes, and other maritime duties upon the late pretended ordinance of both Houses of Parliament:

There is also one which I lack sufficient knowledge of emblems to interpret – it appears to show a woman with two doves in her lap, and a man reclining in a tree – or a cloud? – above her. It was the initial for A proclamation for a generall fast thorowout this realme of England.

I think Sharpe and Adamson are undoubtedly right to point out how contemporaries would have created meaning from these woodcuts. They were part of the message itself as well as the medium through which it was delivered. Where it gets more fuzzy is in the intentions behind the creation of meaning. Not much seems to be known about the process of drawing up and printing proclamations. Who wrote them? Who agreed them? Who took them to the printers? How much scope did the printers have to choose the iconography – was it discussed between printer and author, or did the printer happen to alight on what they thought would be an appropriate woodcut? Was it just the nearest woodcut initial that happened to be at hand?

What is both fascinating and frustrating is the question of the extent to which the state might have deliberately used the typography and iconography – not just the text – of proclamations and other official printed documents to influence the reading public. Fascinating because it could tell us a lot about the use of print by the state during this period: and frustrating because we will probably never know the complete answer.

A close encounter – of the third kind, or of the angelic kind? – from 1651, noted in the newsbook The Perfect Diurnall:

By Letters from Cheshire we had an exact accompt of a late strange appearance in the Air at a place called Madeley, of the Sun, Moone, and sighting, and other strange things as followeth, 16 Aprill 1651. Mary Sidway, Wife unto Robert Sidway in the Parish of Madely, Gent. in the County of Stafford saith, That sitting in her doore, one of her children being playing by her, about a quarter of an houre before Sun setting, taking notice of the Sunne, thought it to be of a strange bloudy colour, looking more earnestly upon it; perceived over it a perfect halfe Moon, but she thinking she might be deceived in hersight, wiped her eyes, and looked upon it againe: Upon which the said Moone suddenly vanished, and there appeared round about the Sunne many darke bodies, in compasse like unto ordinary Pewter Dishes, all which instantly turned as red as bloud, those of the North side, flying off from the Sunne, She the said Mary Sidway upon the same, called forth her Maid, and asked her whether she saw any towards the Sunsetting? Her Maid answered no; But she pressed her five or six times, to see if she could discern any thing, upon which the Maid answered again, no, I see nothing; it may be, said the Maid, God will not let mee see what you doe; Upon which words, the said Maid Confessed she forthwith saw the same, crying out unto her Dame, ah Dame they come upon us! they come upon us! and forthwith in their view came downe from the Sun into the Court before the door, multitudes of darke bodies in the signs of men, having arms and swords discernable, but from the rest of the bodies were of a thick darknesse without fome, of which they can give no good accompt; there also in their view arose out of the ground as many like bodies in opposition unot these, which to their judgments ran violently one upon another; In their running up and down the Court they pressed so near the door where she sate and the maid stood by, that being afraid of hurt by them, they withdrew themselves into the entry of the house, but she, the said Mary Sidway, remembering her little Child to be left without doors desired her maid to fetch the Child in, who at first deneid, but through her Dames importunity, at the last adventured to the oor, who seeing the Child in the Court amongst them, ran hastily and snatched up the Child, so came in to her Dame, and made fast the Doore; upon which they both being very fearfull, they went to Prayer, which being ended, they looked out of the Window, finding them still in the same posture, two horses shapes being by them seen amongst this Company, and that which most affrighted them with the Mote beore the window, which seemed to be spotted all over in the Compass of Round Trenchers with saining blood: Her Maid then desired her to look out of the other window upon the other side of the house, (which she did) and there they beheld all the back side full of long Cannons, and holsters standing rowes, with their mouthes upwards; They being still in feare went to prayer againe, after which they looked out on both sides the house, and all was gone and seemed to be cleare; Upon which, they resolved to goe forth again, and to look for a Man and a Boy thry had in the fields (which accordingly they did) But standing by the end of the house looking again towards the Sunne, they discerned a thicke fogg to arise, out of which came flying to them a creature in the bignesse of a Canon, with a broad face all hairy, two large wings (in their description, like unto the Angels wings pictured in Churches) upon sight whereof she the said Mary Sidway, said to her maid, certainely this is an Angell, and the day of judgement is come, come let us go and hasten to our folks and die together; but while she was thus speaking came another in the like shape, and after that a third, so they going toward the field where their man was at work they met him, who neither heard nor saw any thing, so they returned home all of them being in fear that night. This is a perfect and true relation taken from the mouth of the said Mary Sidway by many Gentlemen and Ministers, and she the said M. S. being known to be a very religious Woman, and come of Godly Parents. This Madeley is upon the borders of Cheshire.

Perfect Diurnall (5-12 May 1651), BL, TT, E.785[23], pp. 1013-1014.

From Thomas Scot’s account of his role as intelligencer for the Council of State in the early 1650s, describing his network of spies and agents:

For France there was one who went by the name of N. N., who had for a long time before (as I understood from Mr Frost) given Intelligence to the Committee of both Kingdomes, and after to the Committee of safety at Derby House, which I saw was satisfactorie, but when the King came thither wee added, and by the meanes of Father Creely an Irish Abbott, knowne here by the name of Capt. Holland, got something more in relation to his Maties affaires and from about ye Queene his Mothers Court.

Is it wrong that when I read about Father Creely I immediately thought of his modern-day counterpart?

Too immersed in dissertation angst at the moment to post much – only 4,000 words to go! – but in the meantime here are some blog posts that have caught my eye recently:

• The latest History Carnival at Airminded.
• An ancient/medieval edition of Carnivalesque at Food History.
• Archaeastronomy on Herodotus and the shape of the world.
• Bookn3rd on the Gild Book of the Barber-Surgeons of York.
• Early Modern Whale on bees.
• A Historian’s Craft on using newspapers as sources. This prompted various thoughts, given my current immersion in 1650s newsbooks, which I will try to write up at some point…