ELIZABETHAN ARMORIAL MANUSCRIPT Elizabethan armorial of the Nobility of England, arranged in reigns from William the Conqueror to Queen Elizabeth I, 162 leaves (including 69 blanks), written in a neat italic hand, with approximately 572 FULLY EMBLAZONED COATS-OF-ARMS OF THE PEERS AND RULERS OF ENGLAND, typically four to a page but with 21 single larger full-page shields with full armorial bearings, a few between one and 5 per page, and 4 pages with between 9 and 12 per page, a few shields left blank in the reign of Elizabeth, 5 pages at end filled in neat seventeenth century hand with "Collections of the most remarkable proceedings in the first parliament contained in the first volume of A. Rushworth's Collections beginning the 16th of King James...", 2 or 3 shields with minor damage caused by adhesion but generally very clean, contemporary late sixteenth-century calf, covers with a gilt fillet border within double blind fillets, with a gilt four-leaved flower at the corners, and large central gilt stepped strap-work block with a dotted background, containing a separate oval gilt block of the Arms of Queen Elizabeth I within the Garter and surmounted by a coronet, the spine with seven panels within raised bands, a gilt fillet above and below each band, and a gilt ornament made up from small tools in the centre of each panel, g.e., neatly restored at ends of joints and spine, lacks ties, paper library label [see footnote] at upper margin of upper cover (and one loosely inserted), folio (448 x 235mm.), [c.1575] A HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED ELIZABETHAN MANUSCRIPT, IN AN ATTRACTIVE CONTEMPORARY BINDING. The opening leaf has the arms of the Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes and William the Conqueror, after which each reign is opened with the large arms of the Monarch, followed in order of precedence by the arms of the new creations of the reign, accompanied by brief biographical notes. Some of the Monarchs arms are supported by charming animals (lions, dragons, etc.). The last creations included are those of the Earl of Lincoln and Lords Compton, Cheyne and Norris in 1572, which is probably the approximate date of the manuscript. The binding has a large block on the covers which is very similar (but distinct) from ones used by several shops in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, including Jean de Planche, Williamson of Eton, and the MacDurnan Gospels/John Bateman bindery. See, for example, Henry Davis, I, pp.36-43 (tool Y), and Nixon "Elizabethan Gold-Tooled Bindings" in Essays in Honour of Victor Scholderer, plates 6 & 7. For a similarly decorated Elizabethan armorial manuscript see Christie's New York, The Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow, 20 June 2013, lot 498, sold £32,500. Provenance: Pytts family, with "Pytts Book Room at Kyre [Worcestershire]", paper label pasted to upper cover, and loosely inserted pencil note "Book of Heraldry written by Sir Edward Pytts. temp - Eliz.th"; Maggs Bros Ltd, 'Bookbindings in the British Isles. Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century. Catalogue 1075. Part I', 1987, No.11.