This chapter provides an overview of the wider Firework Book tradition. It addresses whether a single genre existed or whether this term is more correctly applied to a collective group of more disparate texts. It considers the historiography of research on Firework Books and whether a distinction should be made between the different types of Firework Books. Ultimately, it explores how and where the Firework Book fits into the wider genre of fifteenth-century technical writings (with and without illustrations), and analyses the similarities and differences of existing manuscripts and how these have been interpreted by scholars.

Firework Books as a Coherent Genre

The case needs to be made for this being a coherent tradition which requires (or is entitled to include) a clearly definable group of texts. For the purpose of this chapter, I understand a Firework Book to be a text written in Early New High German, consisting of a number of core elements in relation to early gunpowder artillery, including: the so-called ‘Master Gunner's Questions’; the handling of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal; instructions on how to make, improve, preserve, and revitalize gunpowder; as well as other instructions related to attacks with gunpowder technology or how to defend against these. The core of the text was reproduced many times over more than a century. From 1529 onwards, it continued to be produced as printed text. The earliest version probably appeared during the first years of the fifteenth century and the last well into the sixteenth. The Firework Book was thus so frequently restructured and repackaged that no two surviving texts are identical in content.

All surviving manuscripts of the Firework Book were produced in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the local dialects of the south-western region of present-day Bavaria. The texts of all surviving Firework Books, which all show variations, were written in fifteenth-century vernacular script, almost exclusively in red and dark brown ink.

As a group such books retain a coherence and similarities to an extent much greater than, for example, cookery books or fencing manuals from the same period and region. It is striking that, in fifteenth-century Germany, the south-western region of Bavaria was at the forefront of producing vernacular manuscripts of a technical nature. For example, Melitta Weiss Adamson and Trude Ehlert have examined the production of vernacular cookery books and their adjacent genres in fifteenth-century Germany.

Thursday 11 June 1840

John Cecil Hall, archdeacon.

Francis Broderick Hartwell, vicar-general.

Alfred Philips, principal of King William's College, absent.

Robert Dixon, vice-principal of King William's College, absent.

John Nelson, absent.

Thomas Howard, at a funeral.

Henry Maddrell, archdeacon's registrar.

Thomas Stephen.

Edward Craine, late.

John Edward Harrison.

Alexander Gelling, absent.

Joseph Qualtrough, late.

Joseph Brown, episcopal registrar.

Bowyer Harrison

William Corrin

William Duggan

William Gill

Samuel Gelling

Bobert Brown, at a funeral.

John Lamothe Stowell

George Stickler Parsons

Archibald Holmes

John Thomas Clarke

William Carpenter, off the island.

John Cannell

Thomas Caine

John Gell

Henry Joseph Stevenson

Daniel Nelson, supernumerary and official, off the island.

Thomas Drury, curate of Andreas, off the island.

Edward Qualtrough, curate of Dalby

John Qualtrough, curate of Sulby

Thomas Rump Drake, curate of St Barnabas

William Kermode, curate of Lezayre

Maurice Fitzgerald Day, curate of St George's

William Christian, absent.

According to the Manx Sun of Friday 19 June 1840 (p. 4) the bishop delivered a charge at the convocation.

The constitution of the convocation265

[1] In the name of our great Lord and Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the glory and increase of his kingdom amongst men.

We, the bishop, archdeacon, vicars-general and clergy of this isle, who do subscribe these articles, that we may not stand charged with the scandals which wicked men bring upon religion while they are admitted to and reputed members of Christ['s] church, and that we may by all laudable means promote the conversion of sinners, and oblige men to submit to the discipline of the Gospel, and lastly, that we may provide for the instruction of the growing age in Christian learning and good manners, we have formed these following constitutions, which we oblige ourselves (by God's help) to observe, and to endeavour that all others within our several cures shall comply with the same:

1. First, that when a rector, vicar or curate shall have any number of persons under twenty of his parish desirous and fit to be confirmed, he shall give the lord bishop notice thereof, and a list of their names, and shall suffer none to offer themselves to be confirmed but such he has before instructed to answer in the necessary parts of Christian knowledge, and who, besides their church catechism, have learned such short prayers for morning and evening as shall be immediately provided for that purpose.

2. That no person be admitted to the holy sacrament till he has first been confirmed by the bishop (or in case of his lordship's absence or indisposition) to bring a certificate from the archdeacon or vicars-general that he is duly qualified for confirmation.

[2] 3. That no person admitted to stand as godfather or godmother, nor to enter into the holy state of matrimony, till they have received the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper, unless being an orphan, there be a necessity for his speedy marriage; and this to be approved of and dispensed with by the ordinary for a limited time to fit himself for the sacrament; and where any of them are of another parish, they are to bring a certificate from their proper pastor.

These are all to be found in a single manuscript in the Manx National Heritage Library, M 2042A, fos. lr-14r. This MS formerly belonged to John Selden, and is almost certainly the text used by Sir William Dugdale in his Monasticon Anglicanum (6 vols., London 1665), I, 711-17; 2nd edn. (8 vols., London, 1817- 30), V, 253-6. The texts are also found in Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Add. C 64, fos. 55r-57r, 58r-66v, 113r-116r, which seems to have been the basis for David Wilkins’ edition in the Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae (4 vols., London, 1737). A third MS containing them is in Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, MS 793 (P 28), pp. 53-79. However, it appears that both the Oxford and the Cambridge manuscripts depend (independently of each other) on the first, and are therefore valuable mainly for occasional conjectural emendations. On the history of the canons, see C. R. Cheney, ‘Manx synodical statutes, A. D. 1230(?)-1351. Part I: Introduction and Latin texts', Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, VII (Summer 1984), pp. 63-89 and Tart II: Translation of Latin texts', ibid, VIII (Winter 1984), pp. 51-63.

Thursday 31 May 1855

Absent:

John Edward Harrison, unwell.

Alexander Gelling, unwell.

Thomas Caine, preaching to Friendly Society.

Edward Forbes, off the island from ill health.

John Purdon Stoute, unwell.

New curates:

William Maxwell Smith, Michael.

Henry Grattan White, Ballaugh.

Henry Thomas Adamson, St Barnabas.

Thursday 15 May 1856

Absent:

John Edward Harrison, unwell.

Alexander Gelling, unwell.

John Lamothe Stowell, duty at church.

Edward Forbes, abroad in ill health.

John Cannell, unwell.

Charles James Stewart, off the island.

Benjamin Philpot Clarke, doing duty.

The bishop delivered his charge and celebrated holy communion.578

Thursday 4 June 1857

Absent:

Thomas E. Brown, vice-principal of King William's College.

John Edward Harrison, unwell.

Alexander Gelling, unwell.

Edward Forbes, not on the island.

John Thomas Clarke, absent.

John Cannell, absent.

William Richard Ick, not on the island.

New curates:

William Richard Ick, St George's.

Edward Gomersall Charlesworth, Michael.

William Lloyd Jones, St Thomas.

Francis Richard Swallow, Foxdale.

Thomas Fletcher, St Barnabas.

George Dawes, St Luke's.

William Charles Sparrow, St Mary's.

Wednesday 2 June 1858

Distribution of the royal bounty up to 3 April 1858:

We the undersigned clergy and schoolmasters of the diocese of Sodor and Man entitled to a distributive share of the royal bounty, do hereby acknowledge to have received from the Reverend Joseph Brown, episcopal registrar, the sums affixed to our respective names, being our dividends for four quarters of the royal bounty, ending 5 April 1858.

The convocation of 1607195

At a convocation and court holden before the reverend father in God John Philips, lord bishop of Man, the third day of December 1607, in Church Peelers in Holland,196 it is decreed as followeth:

Thereupon a process given and granted by the foresaid reverend father after the manner of this isle, according to the decree for his appearance. Concordat in decreto. Iohannes Cosnahan, registrarius.

Yonge apparently did not appear and Thompson was confirmed in the living, with Yonge ordered to pay damages to him, on 21 September 1608.

The convocation of 1610199

At a convocation holden the 23 of January 1609 before the reverend father in God John, lord bishop of Man, in Church Peelers in Hollandtown.

It is decreed that Sir Nicholas Thompson and Sir Christopher Yonge, clerks, shall make their personal appearance in St Mary's church in Ballalaighe [Ballaugh] before the ordinary, the sixth day of February being Tuesday [6 February 1610] between the hours of nine and eleven of the clock in the forenoon the foresaid day, and there and then to know his further pleasure and not to fail, sub poena suspensionis.

Thereupon a process given and granted by the foresaid reverend father for their appearance according to the decree. Concordat in decreto.

Thursday 2 June 1814

According to the Manks Advertiser of Saturday 4 June (p. 2), a convocation was held at St George's, Douglas, at which John Nelson, vicar of Jurby, was the preacher. Afterwards, the bishop entertained the clergy to lunch at castle Mona.

No records survive for convocations on these statutory dates, though the bishop is known to have been in the island at that time.

The above are the statutory dates, but the bishop was probably off the island in 1818, 1819 and 1821.

Wednesday 26 June 1822

[66] Clergy present:

The above are the statutory dates, but the bishop was off the island in 1824 and 1825, and probably also in 1826.

Whereas… the Lord's Day is very much profaned and neglected to the great scandal and dishonour of our holy profession, and decay of Christian piety… we do order and require that no person within this our diocese do presume to do any servile work on that day, especially that no fisherman do offer to go to sea from Saturday at night till Monday morning, and that no miller do suffer his mill to grind from twelve of the clock on Saturday at night till nightfall on Sunday on a penalty of fourteen days’ imprisonment in St German's prison, and penance in every church of the island for the first offence, and for every relapse double punishment and four pounds fine to the lord's use without mitigation.

The accustomed unwritten laws until now practised continually by the church are as follows.

Rape

1. That such as are accused of rape be proceeded against in the spiritual court in manner and form as of sorcery, as is expressed in the fiftieth spiritual statute.238

Debts of the deceased

2. That when a debt appears to be due from a deceased to the lord, and the deceased's debts surmounting the inventory, the lord's debt is first to be paid; secondly, orphans’ goods, and afterwards the claimer's penny pound like by the general sumner, if none else undertake to administer after the goods are sold at the market cross to their best value.

Excommunicates

3. That an excommunicate person persisting irregular is to be imprisoned and delivered over body and goods to the lord's mercy.

4. That all fines imposed by the church are given in charge to the comptroller after that ordinary hath mitigated the same according to the spiritual statute.239

Inheritance by minors

5. That notwithstanding the eighth spiritual statute,240 it hath been accustomed that if there hath been but one child betwixt man and wife and the man died intestate, the kindred of the father, by virtue of that statute, was to have the tuition of the said child and goods until he came to fourteen years of age, yet in regard by woeful experience, it was found that such orphans were very much neglected in their good usage, and the church conceiving it unfit to commit the tuition of a child to him or her that was to have his estate of lands and goods after his decease, ordered always as appears on record, and the mother, if she be alive, or if not, the next relation on her side, should have the tuition of the said child, to whom none of the estate fell due by his death, and to be rewarded out of the profits of the said estate and goods, at the sight of four sworn men.

The same rule observed if the estate come by the mother, always provided that the court find such next relations capable of their charge. Otherwise they may decree as they think most fit for the child's safety and best usage. But all this in case there be not a will made, wherein the child and goods are otherwise disposed of.

Whereas it is observed that several great inconveniencies have attended this isle by reason of the bishop, archdeacon, clergy, temporal officers, soldiers and others, often withdrawing themselves from their respective duties within the same; for prevention whereof for the future, be it enacted by the governor, officers, deemsters and twenty-four keys aforesaid, that every bishop, archdeacon, parson, vicar, curate or others who now hold and enjoy the bishopric, archdeaconry or any parsonage, vicarage, curacy or such like ecclesiastical promotion within the isle, to the value often pounds per annum or upwards, as also every temporal officer, soldier or other person or persons having and enjoying any office, place or other employment from and under the right honourable lord of this isle, to the value of three pounds per annum or upwards, shall, from and after the first day of May next ensuing the date hereof [1 May 1697], inhabit and personally reside within this isle in and upon their respective livings, promotions, benefices, offices, places or other employments, and if they or any of them shall at any time after the said first day of May be nonresident, or not inhabit within the isle, in and upon their said respective livings, promotions, benefices, offices, places or other employments, but shall be found wilfully to absent him or themselves from his or their duties in the same (wind, weather, health and convenient shipping permitting) above the space of four months (to be accounted at several times) in any one year, commencing always upon the said first day of May in every year, such person or persons so offending shall (for the first offence) forfeit and lose the full value of one half year's profit, benefit and advantage of his or their said livings, promotions, benefices, offices, places or other employments, to be levied, collected and disposed of in manner and form as in any by this act is hereafter mentioned and expressed;

Bishop Shirley died just over three months after his consecration, and was replaced only days before the 1847 convocation by Bishop Eden.

Thursday 27 May 1847

The tithe account is all that survives.

Thursday 18 May 1848

Absent or late:

John Cannell, absent.

George Caesar Stephen, absent.

William Corrin, unwell.

John LaMothe Stowell, late.

William Drury, absent.

St Barnabas was vacant.

After morning prayers read by his lordship's chaplain the vicar of Michael, the reverend Edward Forbes B. A., chaplain of St George's, Douglas, preached a sermon from Acts vi. 4.

The names of the clergy were then called over, when his lordship then pronounced an eloquent and appropriate charge to the clergy, which they unanimously prayed his lordship to publish.

The venerable archdeacon then read a congratulatory address from the clergy of the diocese to his lordship, for which his lordship, in the most feeling manner, thanked the archdeacon and clergy.

His lordship afterwards consulted the clergy on the propriety of passing an act of Tynwald for making better provision for parochial schoolmasters and for making further regulations for the better government for the parochial and other schools in the Isle of Man.

His lordship also laid before the clergy Mr Harris the tithe accounts as before 1847, which year and the next to e[piscopal] registrar]… His lordship having by circular notice dated 22 April 1848 signified that he expected and required the several clergy of his diocese to exhibit at this convocation their respective letters of orders, institutions, induction and all other licences or faculties whatever pursuant to the 137th canon ecclesiastical, the same were exhibited [accordingly in the manner set down hereafter.]573

Andreas. The venerable Joseph Christian Moore, A. M. rector.

At a convocation of the clergy of this isle before the reverend father in God John, by divine permission lord bishop of Sodor and Man,251 in Kirk Michael church the twenty-sixth day of July in the year of our Lord God 1683 and in the first year of his consecration, it is ordered, ordained and decreed as followeth:

1. First, whereas general complaint is made by the whole clergy that most of their respective parishioners are very remiss and backward in attending divine service upon Sundays in the afternoon, as also upon holy days and such other days as are set apart for the service of God by the rubric of our church, which thing (if not seasonably reclaimed) may redound to the great decay of Christian piety amongst us, and to the end that such neglect may be redressed for the future and God the better glorified and honoured in his holy worship and religion the better propagated and established amongst us, it is therefore ordered, ordained and decreed that publication be made in the several parish churches throughout this isle, that all and singular the respective inhabitants and parishioners thereof (or one person out of each family at least) shall for the future repair to their parish churches to hear divine service every Sunday in the afternoon, as well as the forenoon, and upon all holy days and other days of prayer, duly and frequently under the penalty of forfeiting four pence from every person that shall neglect his duty in this nature, which the churchwardens are hereby ordered to levy and collect from time to time, as the same shall fall out to be distributed to some pious use, according to the ordinary's pleasure and appointment.

Bishop Shirley died just over three months after his consecration, and was replaced only days before the 1847 convocation by Bishop Eden.

Thursday 27 May 1847

The tithe account is all that survives.

Thursday 18 May 1848

Absent or late:

John Cannell, absent.

George Caesar Stephen, absent.

William Corrin, unwell.

John LaMothe Stowell, late.

William Drury, absent.

St Barnabas was vacant.

After morning prayers read by his lordship's chaplain the vicar of Michael, the reverend Edward Forbes B. A., chaplain of St George's, Douglas, preached a sermon from Acts vi. 4.

The names of the clergy were then called over, when his lordship then pronounced an eloquent and appropriate charge to the clergy, which they unanimously prayed his lordship to publish.

The venerable archdeacon then read a congratulatory address from the clergy of the diocese to his lordship, for which his lordship, in the most feeling manner, thanked the archdeacon and clergy.

His lordship afterwards consulted the clergy on the propriety of passing an act of Tynwald for making better provision for parochial schoolmasters and for making further regulations for the better government for the parochial and other schools in the Isle of Man.

His lordship also laid before the clergy Mr Harris the tithe accounts as before 1847, which year and the next to e[piscopal] registrar]… His lordship having by circular notice dated 22 April 1848 signified that he expected and required the several clergy of his diocese to exhibit at this convocation their respective letters of orders, institutions, induction and all other licences or faculties whatever pursuant to the 137th canon ecclesiastical, the same were exhibited [accordingly in the manner set down hereafter.]573

Andreas. The venerable Joseph Christian Moore, A. M. rector.