Scope and Contents: More complete cataloging can be found at: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/45294882
Full Title: The topographicall descriptions, regimentes, and pollicies off Ittalie, France, Germanie, England, Spayne, Scotland, and Ireland [manuscript] : wherby in som[m] sorte the particulare estates off euerie one off thos contries maie be discouered
A diplomatic reference work on the major countries of western Europe, intended as a manual for use in conducting foreign policy for Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. This work was one of the first attempts to compile indispensable intelligence information and to organize it into a structured and carefully indexed reference manual. Tilney's work is the most complete contemporary description of Europe in the age of Elizabeth extant in English.
For a complete descriptive index, see Streitberger (1986), p. 99-120.
Ms. codex.
Title from fol. 9. For a full physical description including collation, layout, paper, binding, maps, engravings, coats of arms, and script, see Streitberger (1986), p. 75-98.
 Binding: Full red morocco with gold tooling; gilt edges; conserved by Richard C. Baker, September 2002.
Origin: Completed before Elizabeth's death on 24 March 1603. Sometime shortly after the queen's death, Tilney revised the manuscript for presentation to James I and the codex preserves three copies of an otherwise unrecorded portrait of the king engraved by Benjamin Wright.
Provenance: Edmund Tilney -- Passed on among the Tilney family until disposition as early as the mid-17th century or as late as the 19th century -- The manuscript was part of the Foley family library until its sale at Ruxley Lodge, Claygate, Surrey, October 1919 (Foley bookplate on inside of front cover) -- Bought by Quaritch Ltd. and sold immediately to an unknown party -- Purchased by the University of Illinois from C. A. Stonehill, 1955, with assistance from Ernest Ingold and the University Research Board.
Former shelfmark: Q. 914.2 T46t 1598 (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library).
Faye & Bond. Streitberger, W. R. Edmond Tyllney: Master of the Revels and Censor of Plays: A Descriptive Index to His Diplomatic Manual on Europe. AMS Studies in the Renaissance, 15. New York: AMS Press, 1986. Streitberger, W. R. "The Tyllney Manuscript." In Non Solus 3 (1976): Streitberger, W. R. "Edmond Tyllney's 'Topographical descriptions, regiments, and policies' of England and Wales: A critical edition." Ph. D. diss. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1973.
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