Letter from John Blythmam, Plymouth to Filippo Corsini, London [manuscript], 1589 August 7

Plymouth 1589 August 7.

1 item ; 21 x 31cm

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Great Britain -- England -- Plymouth, -- production place.

272818 MS

From dealer's description: "ELIZABETHAN PLYMOUTH – PLAGUE, POSTAGE & PILCHARDS 6. BLYTHMAN, John. [Autograph letter signed to the Italian merchant Filippo Corsini in London, reporting on the course of the plague in Plymouth and mercantile matters.] Plymouth, 7 August 1589. Autograph letter signed, ink on paper. Folio (21 x 31cm) [1] page in English in a secretary hand, verso with manuscript address panel, edges uncut, old folds, trace of red wax seal at verso margin, very good. The prominent Plymouth merchant John Blythman writes 7 August 1589 to his business partner Filippo Corsini (1538-1601), a wealthy Florentine merchant resident in London. Blythman, a friend of Sir Francis Drake (c.1540-1596), and thrice mayor of Plymouth, advises on the trajectories of various different letters to and from Corsini, some sent via Yarmouth. He reports on the ongoing outbreak of plague in Plymouth – “the sycknes contynue … God save it when his wyll & pleasure is … dye by 16 & 18 a daye, & now it is come to 4 & fyve a daye & some days butt one or 2, Gods wyll be done …” Blythman also notes the state of the fish market “… there is no store of pylcharde made here as yett ...” Provenance: this is one of a relatively small number of letters penned in English from the Corsini archive (dispersed Christies & Robson Lowe, 1984-1988)." Ordered from Samuel Gedge, D9666, 223-07-07, Catalogue XXXIV, item #6

272818