A question for early modern (and related) historians
I'm looking at the purchase in the mid-16th century (for "vs iijd", which I read as five shillings and three pence, i.e. quite a lot) of “two aulter frontes of Dornyke and res."
Any idea about Dornkye and res. (The full stop is part of the res. making it - is this right for the period? look like an abbreviation.)
All help gratefully received!
4 Comments:
Can you give a bit more context?
I wonder if 'aulter' might be 'altar' (as in churches); 'of' could well mean 'from', in which case 'Dornyke' might be the name of a supplier. But I can't work out 'res.' though an abbreviation seems very likely. More clues needed! (When you say the full stop is part of the word, where exactly is it placed?)
So someone bought altar fronts "of Dornyke and res." Like Sharon, my first guess is that Dornyke is the seller/maker/supplier of the altar fronts. But Dornick is a kind of twill--maybe the "Dornyke" refers to the material? (Google the phrase "dornick twill" to see examples.) Still doesn't answer the "res." part.
Further evidence:
DARNICK, DORNECK, DORNICK: A coarse kind of linen fabric used generally for hangings, originally made (17th century) at Dorneck, Dutch name for Tournay. The name was also applied to a coarse variety of checkered table linen.
From an antique-dealers' encyclopedia online (http://www.oldandsold.com/articles02/textiles-d.shtml)
So if it's not the fabric, Dornyke might refer to Tournay as a place name.
This is a purchase by a Dionysia Leveson, widow of Nycholas, probably of Lime Street London, from St Andrew's Undershaft during the Edwardian Reformation. From an early 20th-century history of the churches of London - unfortunately this item isn't referenced, so that's pretty well all I know.
The abbreviation is simply "res."
Thanks Penny - that linen fabric sounds right to me, now there's only the res mystery
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