Tracts by Bacon, Robert Parson and others (Hardwick MS 55)

This scribal manuscript is a copy of two published texts. The volume is written in a professional hand (the same as HMS/4/9). The first title page begins: "An advertisement written to a Secretary of my Lord Treasurer of England by an English Intelligencer as he passed through Germany into Italy concerning another book newly written in Latin and published in diverse languages and countries against Her Majesty's proclamation for search and apprehension of seminary priests and their receivers. Also of a letter written by the Lord Treasurer in defence of his gentry and nobility intercepted, published and answered by the Papists".

The author begins by dedicating the essay to 'H' Secretary to the right honorable Lord High Treasurer of England (William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley). Sometimes the topics of the text are summarised in the margins. Also included is:

fols. 32-127: a copy of "Observations upon a libel entitled: 'The Declarations of the Causes of Troubles presupposed to be against England 1592'", including 25 blank folios.

Part of this volume contains the publications listed in the Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts as: BcF 143.5, RaW 384.4. Mention of this volume is made in the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Third Report (1872) p.43. A transcription of this text is available online from the Oxford Text Archive: http://tei.it.ox.ac.uk/tcp/Texts-HTML/free/A09/A09610.html.