The Celys and their World

This book documents the activities of the Celys, a family of staplers and ship-owners, in the late fifteenth century, and also gives vivid details of their intimate concerns.

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From the start of his career as a young woolmerchant, about 1473, George Cely was a hoarder. He kept everything, from important business accounts down to the scrap of paper on which his father had once noted that the brewer and tailor hadn't been paid yet. The result is a rich collection, which not merely documents the Cely family's activities as staplers and ship-owners, but also gives vivid details of their intimate concerns: what they ate and wore, where they lived, how they spent their money - and where they went for loans when the cash ran short - how they amused themselves, and how they coped with trade recessions and political turmoil at home and abroad. This is the first comprehensive study to be based on the material.