Sirenaicks, Guilds and a New Coryate Manuscript.

This article focuses on the Right Worshipful Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen, a literary society active in early seventeenth-century London, with which Thomas Coryate (1577–1617), known primarily as a travel writer, was closely involved. Contrary to earlier scholarship that dismissed Coryate as merely the group's comic target, new manuscript evidence—including a 1613 legal bill of complaint titled "Coryat v. Bingham" endorsed by John Hoskins, a fellow Sirenaick—reveals a deeper camaraderie and mutual support within the group. The Sirenaicks organized themselves as a mock-guild, emulating the formal structure, offices (such as Beadle and Seneschal), and rituals of trade guilds, and collectively produced literary works through collaborative and performative means. This guild-like framework provided members like Coryate with social, financial, and charitable support, situating the Sirenaicks as an English analogue to continental European literary societies and offering new insights into early modern associational literary culture.