This is the official account book of the York Bakers' Guild, not, as some of you thought, a series of trading accounts kept by an individual baker! The only mention of bread is the 'shield of main bread' presented annually by the Guild to the Lord Mayor and aldermen. The audited accounts were kept up to date annually, by a city official freelancing: this particular hand is either that of John Clerke or Thomas Faile. Both these men made annotations and additions to the Register of the York Mystery Plays.

The accounts are laid out in a recognisable way, with incomings first (the end of this section is at the top of the page) and outgoings second. Here is the heading for Income, from the previous page:

The headings are in a larger and slightly more formal script, and centred. This guides the eye to the beginning of each section. The initial T of the heading for the year is elaborately flourished with expert penwork. A later hand has added the date in Arabic figures.
The accountants' names are entered in the heading. They changed every year.

Credits are added up at the end of the section. The totals are centred and kept well separate from the rest of the accounts, so that the eye is drawn first to the most important part, the sum of credits and the sum of debits.

Each item in the account is given a line to itself. The amounts are arranged in a straight line on the right-hand margin. Their heads are lined up along the frame-ruling, which gives a rather jagged appearance. Roman numerals are used for accounting. For convenience sake and to prevent eye-skip, items are linked to amounts by a straight line running across the page. Each item is introduced, unsurprisingly, by the word Item, which actually means 'And next ...'.

The page is frame-ruled though not aggressively so. The lefthand margin is used for notes: in this case non allocatus, which means, 'not allowed'. In other words, like someone filling in an Income Tax form, the accountants have claimed expenses which the auditor has not allowed.

There is no ruling for individual lines of writing. However, the scribe has kept the lines even and straight.

He has left enough space between the lines for the extravagant loops on ascenders and descenders not to get entangled, though occasionally ss, ff, y, and other descenders end up in the next line's space.

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© MEG TWYCROSS 2000