Anthony Roll

Anthony Roll
Own scan. Photo by Gerry Bye. Original by Anthony Anthony. · Public domain · source
Name	Anthony Roll
Date	c.1546
Author	Anthony Anthony (compiler); possibly Anthony Anthony (sailmaker)
Language	Early Modern English
Country	Kingdom of England
Form	Illustrated naval catalogue; vellum rolls
Location	Some parts held by the National Maritime Museum, London; other parts formerly owned by the British Royal Collection

Anthony Roll

Introduction

The Anthony Roll is a mid-16th-century illustrated naval catalogue created in the reign of Henry VIII that documents Tudor naval power. Compiled by a figure associated with the Tudor navy administration, the Roll combines pictorial ship portraits, armament inventories, and crew lists, serving as both an archival record and a propaganda instrument during the period of the Italian Wars and renewed Anglo-Scottish tensions. The surviving material is essential for studies of Tudor shipbuilding, Naval architecture (16th century), Henry VIII's Great Shipbuilding Programme, and the development of early modern sea power in the British Isles.

Composition and Content

The manuscript comprises three vellum rolls originally describing more than twenty vessels, with detailed heraldry, measurements, and ordinance complements for ships including the Henry Grace à Dieu, the Mary Rose, and the Peter Pomegranate. Each entry blends ship portraiture with a tabular inventory of bronze and iron cannon, small arms, mariners, gunners, and officers drawn from contemporary muster lists connected to the Navy Royal. The Roll lists individual gunners and officers by name, linking to figures involved in Tudor naval administration such as members of the Clerk of the Ships’ office and associates of Sir Francis Drake’s predecessors. The layout juxtaposes elevation views with annotated gun positions, providing primary-source evidence for historians reconstructing the distribution of ordinance on Tudor warships and the operational capacity envisaged during deployments to the English Channel and the North Sea.

Provenance and Ownership History

The Roll’s provenance traces a complex path through private collectors, Crown repositories, and institutional acquisition. Compiled during the 1540s, the surviving rolls entered royal collections and later passed into the hands of antiquarians in the 17th and 18th centuries associated with circles around the College of Arms and collectors in London. In the 19th century parts of the Roll were separated and acquired by dealers linked to the Royal Naval Museum predecessors and private collectors who supplied material to the British Museum. In the 20th century, one roll was purchased by the Maritime Museum, Greenwich (now the National Maritime Museum, London), while other sections remained in the Royal Collection before being transferred or sold to public institutions. The dispersal and later reunifications have been documented in catalogues of the Society of Antiquaries of London and in auction archives connected to major London firms.

Historical and Naval Significance

As an artifact produced amid rebuilding following the Battle of Flodden (1513) aftermath and during heightened Anglo-French rivalry, the Roll illuminates Tudor strategic priorities, ship types such as carracks and galleasses, and the armament revolution that presaged later engagements like the Spanish Armada. Its inventories offer rare quantitative data used by scholars to model the evolution of shipboard gunnery doctrine associated with Sir John Hawkins and early proponents of broadside tactics. The Roll informs debates about the operational readiness of the Mary Rose at the time of her sinking and contributes to assessments of infrastructure at dockyards such as Deptford Dockyard and Portsmouth Dockyard. Military historians cross-reference the Roll with state papers in the National Archives (United Kingdom) and with muster rolls preserved in the holdings of the British Library to track personnel networks and logistical arrangements supporting Tudor expeditions to Ireland and continental coasts.

Artistic Style and Techniques

The pictorial technique exhibits a workshop style combining pen-and-ink drawing with opaque tempera washes on vellum typical of mid-Tudor illumination practices associated with artists working for Tudor courtiers and naval administrators. Ship portraits are executed in profile with embellished flags bearing royal badges and heraldic devices linked to patrons such as Thomas Cromwell’s circle and naval captains loyal to Henry VIII. The Roll’s depictions emphasize silhouette, proportion, and the placement of gunports, aligning with contemporary continental treatises on ship draughting circulated among English shipwrights influenced by Italian and Flemish plans. Decorative elements, including painted pennons and carved figureheads, reflect material culture recorded in inventories of naval ordnance workshops and carvers active at dockyards like Woolwich Dockyard.

Conservation and Reproductions

Conservation efforts have focused on stabilizing vellum, consolidating pigments, and mitigating iron-gall ink corrosion under protocols used by conservators at the National Maritime Museum, London and major conservation studios. High-resolution photography, multispectral imaging, and raking-light campaigns have enabled non-invasive study of underdrawings and erased annotations, supporting digital facsimiles distributed in institutional catalogues and exhibition catalogues produced by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Library. Scholarly editions, facsimiles, and annotated transcriptions have appeared in monographs addressing Tudor naval history, enabling researchers to integrate the Roll with archaeological evidence from excavations of wrecks such as the Mary Rose and comparative studies of 16th-century European naval registers.

Category:Manuscripts about ships Category:Tudor England Category:Maritime history