Percy's Reliques is a folio of ballads and popular songs collected by Bishop Thomas Percy and published in 1765. Some of them were found on the floor in the house of his friend Humphrey Pitt of Shifnal, a small market town of Shropshire, where Pitt's maid had been using the leaves to light fires. Other sources were the Pepys Library of broadside ballads collected by Samuel Pepys. They all serve to illustrate 16th Century domestic life during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This one illustrates a young gallant newly come to his laud, Who keeps a brace of painted madams at his command.

---

Size: 3695px × 3857px
Location: England, UK
Photo credit: © De Luan / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 16th, 18th, antiquarian, antiquity, aristocracy, art, attire, ballads, bishop, black, broadside, century, clothing, courtesans, culture, domestic, drawing, easy, elizabeth, elizabethan, england, english, engraving, entertainment, etching, fashion, heritage, historic, history, humphrey, icon, iconic, illustration, ladies, library, life, lifestyle, line, lithograph, man, medieval, monochrome, night, nobleman, pepys, percy, percys, picture, pitt, portrait, prostitution, queen, reliques, scene, sketch, street, thomas, timbered, tudors, virtue, white, women, woodcut, young