Music Manuscripts

William Byrd (c.1539/40-1623) is often, deservingly, regarded as one of the pinnacles of English composition, and is the undisputed jewel in the crown of the surviving repertory of Tudor England. Despite his contemporary success as a musician and composer in the heart of the royal musical establishment, it is well documented that Byrd was a practising Catholic - a religious stance at severe odds with his work, as well as the Elizabethan state as a whole. Much of Byrd's finest works were as a result of his recusant nature; composing pieces which compared the plight of persecuted Catholics to that of the Jews in Old Testament scripture. His musical genius was seemingly enough to avoid any real repercussions for this polemical messaging hidden in plain sight, and have resulted in a large corpus of works remaining extant.

The library at Christ Church is fortunate to hold a large number of materials in its special collections that preserve Byrd’s surviving repertoire – some representing the only extant copies of certain works. To mark his quatercentenary, which falls this year, the library has decided to embark on a project to make available a large number of previously undigitised materials held at Christ Church. These digitised materials will be available via the Bodleian Library's online platform, and will be linked below. A number of pre-existing digitised resources, such as the partbooks of John Baldwin (Mus. 979-83) and Robert Dow (Mus. 984-89) feature much of Byrd's surviving corpus of works, and we aim to supplement these with newly available materials.

Arch. Inf. Subt. K.1 - Antiphonale ad Usum Ecclesie Sarum (1519)

A compendium of chant for the Province of Canterbury, the work also known as the Sarum Antiphoner comprises almost the entire plainsong repertory needed to perform the daily cycle of the Offices throughout the year. The copy at Christ Church contains the Pars Hyemalis (running from Advent to Trinity) of the Antiphoner. The only other copy of the Pars Hyemalis was acquired by the British Museum in 1856. A very rare copy of the Antiphoner's Pars Estivalis (B66), belonging to Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, is now at Liverpool Hope University. Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus 4 - 'In te Domine speravi' [Motet] (1700-1740)

Anonymous motet for 3 voices, 2 violins and bass, copied early eighteenth-century. Later eighteenth-century hands have added the ascription 'Iaco. Carissimi', but the attribution remains doubtful. Italic script copied in score by Richard Goodson Jr. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Gibbs 12 - Book of Common Prayer (1634)

A printed copy of the Book of Common Prayer (1634) and other printed material, interleaved with manuscript music for Contratenor Cantoris, copied and bound for use in the chapel of Peterhouse, Cambridge. One of a set of probably eight such partbook-volumes, of which the only other known survivor is Cambridge, Peterhouse, Perne Library O.6.29. Click here for a detailed description of the material.
 

Mus. 14 - English and Italian music, copied by John Blow

A manuscript containing English and Italian sacred and secular music, copied in score by John Blow (1649-1708) during the mid-1670s. Features compositions by many of Blow’s contemporaries in the Royal musical institutions of the early-Restoration period.

Mus 16 - Anthems and adaptations

Manuscript copied in score by Henry Aldrich, containing vocal works, the majority of which being adaptations of works by other composers (mostly Giacomo Carissimi, Palestrina and Thomas Tallis). Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.
 

Mus 19 - Henry Aldrich, Services and Anthems (1680-1690)

Autograph scores copied in three layers: (1) services (items 1-4); (2) verse anthems (items 5-20); (3) full anthems (items 21-8). Aldrich’s choral compositions were intended for use in cathedral services at Christ Church. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.
 

Mus 45 - Table-book, late 16th century: antiphons, etc.

Sections of votive antiphons, Magnificats, and other Latin-texted works, copied in table-book format. Copyists unidentified; English, last quarter of 16th century. The principal copyist was responsible for all except items 1 and 37, which were added by two different hands. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 49 - Guardbook

Eight unrelated and previously discrete tracts by, among others, William Norris, John Lugge and Orlando Gibbons. All English, late 17th and early 18th centuries. The volume was assembled at Christ Church in the late 18th century as part of an uncompleted binding project intended to protect previously unbound items from the Aldrich and Goodson bequests. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.
 

Mus 56-60 - English anthems, madrigals, and laments

Five partbooks from a set originally of six (the Bassus partbook is missing), containing anthems, elegies, madrigals, and other polyphonic works for voices, often with accompaniments for viols. Compiled by an undetermined number of copyists, c. 1620. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscripts.

Links for: Mus 56: Cantus, Mus 57: Quintus, Mus 58: Sextus, Mus 59: Contratenor, Mus 60: Tenor.
 

Mus 78-82 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (i): Motets and Madrigals

Complete set of five partbooks, containing motets and madrigals by Alfonso Ferrabosco (1543-1588). Click here for a detailed description of the manuscripts.

Links for: Mus 78: Cantus, Mus 79: Altus, Mus 80: Quintus, Mus 81: Tenor, Mus 82: Bassus.

Mus 85 - Alessandro Melani's Te Deum

The 'Te Deum' is a Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to Saint Ambrose. The text has been set to music by many composers, among whom is Alessandro Melani, one of the leading composers active in Rome during the 17th century. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 93 - Poems of Mr. Cowley and others

Composed into songs and ayres with a thorough basse to the theorbo, harpsecon, or base-violl. By William King organist of New-College. Printed in Oxford in 1688. Click here for a detailed description of the material.

Mus. 377 - Cantatas by Rossi, Cesti, Carissimi etc., c. 1650 

Cantatas for two and three voices by Rossi, Cesti, Carissimi and others, copied in score c.1650. The copyist is unknown, but was also responsible for Mus. 996, and wrote the music is written continuously across double-page spreads, in two systems. The manuscript probably formed part of the repertory of the ensemble of Italian musicians that visited the court of Queen Christina of Sweden in the two years before her abdication in 1654.
 

Mus 429 - Five performing parts for six 'sinfonias' by Leonora Duarte (1630-1699)

The volume has been assembled from what was once a set of five substantial partbooks, each of which ended with a large number of sheets with unused ruled staves. Of this set, Mus. 429 was the 'Bassus' partbook. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 463-7 - Works by Ferrabosco (i) and others, copied c. 1600

Complete set of five partbooks in manuscript, containing works principally by Alfonso Ferrabosco (1543-1588). Click here for a detailed description of the manuscripts.

Links for: Mus 463: Cantus, Mus 464: Contratenor, Mus 465: Quintus, Mus 466: Tenor, Mus 467: Bassus.
 

Mus 489-93(6-8) - Holbech Partbooks, Byrd - Masses for 3, 4, and 5 voices

These partbooks have been partially digitised, and contain rare examples of Byrd's mass settings for 3, 4, and 5 voices. These publications were printed without title pages, presumably so to not draw too much attention to themselves, as the content would have been deemed exceptionally heretical by the protestant authorities of Elizabethan England. Despite this, inscriptions of ownership on these tracts, to Thomas Holbech (3rd son of William Holbech of Birchingley Hall, baptised 21 October 1606 at Fillingley, Warwickshire), now give these partbooks their name. The remainder of these partbooks feature as part of the Byrd 400 Digitisation Project. Click here for a detailed description of the partbooks.

Links for: Mus 489, Mus 490, Mus 491, Mus 492, Mus 493
 

Mus. 544-53 - John Barnard, First Book of Selected Church Musick (London, 1641; with MS additions & completions from Hereford Cathedral)

A set of ten partbooks, representing the most-complete extant volumes for this seminal musical publication. The set was purchased from Hereford Cathedral in December 1917. Nine of the volumes feature extensive manuscript completions (of damaged printed pages) and additions, a further volume is entirely in manuscript, copied to fill a gap left by a missing partbook. Click here for a detailed description of the partbooks.

Links for: Mus. 489: Holbech Partbook - Contratenor, Mus. 490: Holbech Partbook - Medius, Mus. 491: Holbech Partbook - Superius, Mus. 493: Holbech-Mayhew Partbook - Bassus, Mus. 494 Holbech Partbook - Sextus, Mus. 544: Medius Decani, Mus. 545: Medius Cantoris, Mus. 546: Primus Contratenor Decani, Mus. 547: Secundus Contratenor Decani, Mus. 548: Primus Contratenor Cantoris. Mus. 549: Secundus Contratenor Cantoris, Mus. 550: Tenor Decani, Mus. 551: Tenor Cantoris, Mus. 552: John Barnard, First Book of Selected Church Musick (London, 1641) - Bassus Decani, Mus. 553: John Barnard, First Book of Selected Church Musick (London, 1641) - Bassus Cantoris
 

Mus 619 - Seven Oxford Act songs by Henry Aldrich, Matthew Locke and Sampson Estwick (1650-1699)

Guardbook containing seven Oxford Act songs (odes) by Henry Aldrich, Matthew Locke and Sampson Estwick, several of them in autograph composing scores. Material for each of the seven pieces represented here occupies a discrete fascicle or section within the manuscript, and probably had a separate existence before being bound into its current position. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 783 - 'O Lord! Grant the Queen a long Life',

Anthem (c. 1700) ascribed to Henry Aldrich (see the organ accompaniment in Mus. 1230, item 26). No copy of it survives in Aldrich's own hand, and it appears to have been attributed to him only posthumously. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 834 - The first booke of songs or ayres of foure parts, with tablature for the lute.

Composed by John Dowland. From the Aldrich bequest, listed in Archives 1717, item H13, as 'Dowland's first book of songs'. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 864 - 'Dial' fantasia a 3/4/5 on a hexachord

Unattributed fantasia for 3, 4 or 5 instruments, one of which plays repeated notes in imitation of the chiming of a clock. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 868 - Two bookes of ayres

Scores printed by Thomas Snodham, for Mathew Lownes, and John Brown. The volume also contains a short manuscript score: Thomas Campion’s ‘Author of Light’, for four voices with lute accompaniment from the Book of Ayres. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.
 

Mus. 893 - Sacred Songs & Madrigals in Six Partbooks – Tenor, 1600–1637
 

Mus. 894 - Sacred Songs & Madrigals in Seven Partbooks – Alto, 1600–1637
 

Mus 979-83 - Baldwin Partbooks

Five partbooks from a set originally of six (the Tenor partbook is missing), copied and formerly owned by John Baldwin, a singing-man at St George's Chapel, Windsor; English, c.1575-81, with later additions. This set is one of the most important surviving sources of Tudor church music and Elizabethan motets. It is also famous for Baldwin's fine penmanship, executed on sheets with printed staves. The set appears to have been conceived from the start as a mixed volume of manuscript and printed music, since Baldwin avoided making manuscript copies of the pieces available in the printed section. Click here for a detailed description of the partbooks.

Links for: Mus 979: Superius, Mus 980: Discantus, Mus 981: Contratenor, Mus 982: Sextapars, Mus 983: Bassus.

Mus 984-8 - Dow Partbooks

Complete set of five partbooks containing motets, anthems, consort music and consort songs, copied principally by Robert Dow (1553-88), fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, with later additions by John Baldwin and an unidentified copyist; English, c. 1581-88 (Dow), and later. This set is one of the most important surviving music manuscripts from Elizabethan England, and a major source of works by William Byrd. It is also famous for Dow's exquisite penmanship, executed in black ink over staves previously printed in red. Click here for a detailed description of the partbooks.

Links for: Mus 984: Superius, Mus 985: Medius, Mus 986: Contratenor, Mus 987: Tenor, Mus 988: Bassus.

Mus 989 - Alessandro Scarlatti, Il Flavio Cuniberto (1693-1702)

This is a manuscript of unusual importance in the history of music, as it preserves a complete musical setting by composer Alessandro Scarlatti of the text of poet Matteo Noris’ drama with the same title. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript with additional reference in Anthony M. Cummings, 'A Scarlatti Operatic Masterpiece Revisited', Christ Church Library Newsletter Vol 12, Issue 1, 2020-2021, pp.1-5.

Mus 996 - Cantatas

Manuscript scores by Giacomo Carissimi, Luigi Rossi and others, transcribed by an unidentified copyist (probably Italian), before 1672. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscripts.

Mus 998 - Italian Cantatas (17th century)

This is one of the many manuscripts of seventeenth-century Italian cantatas now in Christ Church Library. Compositions are largely for solo voice and continuo by Mario Savioni, Luigi Rossi, Giacomo Carissimi and other Roman composers. Late seventeenth-century Italian fine binding of red-brown morocco over boards. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.
 

Mus 1001 - Organ-book containing accompaniments for anthems and services (c.1630-50)

The collection (including music by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Morley, John Bull, et al.) may have been partly copied and/or formerly owned by Robert Pickhaver, who was organist of New College, Oxford, in 1662-4. It is not clear how many scribes contributed to the copying of Mus 1001. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 1034A - Quire of keyboard music

Keyboard music; copyist unidentified; English, c.1530 or later. The music has been copied on pages printed with three 5-line staves (on which see below); the copyist has added a sixth line to each stave in manuscript, and has ruled a fourth 6-line stave at the foot of each page. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 1034B - Laudate pueri, attributed to Vincenzo Albrici

[Vincenzo Albrici], 'Laudate pueris [sic] a3', spuriously attributed to 'G. Perrandi' [= Marco Gioseppe Peranda]; copied in score; copyist unidentified, probably German, third quarter of 17th century. There is a set of performing parts for this work in the Düben Collection at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, where the setting is attributed to Vincenzo Albrici. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 1113 - Keyboard book containing works of Italian and English origin

Manuscript containing pieces by Girolamo Frescobaldi, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Bull, Peter Philips, Thomas Tomkins, etc. The volume was probably copied in the 1620s. A few pieces are designated as being for use on specific instruments (organ, virginals, etc). Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.
 

Mus 1187 - Talbot Manuscript

Collection of unbound papers, compiled in the third quarter of the eighteenth century by Christ Church librarians. The majority of the contents were written or assembled by James Talbot (1664-1708) and include the history, description and measurement of musical instruments, together with sections on music history and theory. For this reason, Mus 1187 is familiarly known as the 'Talbot Manuscript'. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 1206 - 'Benedictus Dominus Deus', Alessandro Stradella (1677-78)

A Duet for a treble and counter tenor voice with a bass. Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.

Mus 1208 (1696-97)

Two sets of proofs, one incomplete, from a projected collection of English church music, edited by Henry Aldrich, using Peter de Walpergen's music type. Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus. 1220-4 - Christ Church Cathedral Partbooks

Five partbooks from a set originally of eight, containing English services and anthems; copied for the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, initially in the mid-1640s, with further pieces added during the later 17th and the 18th centuries. Containing a vast corpus of works, and representing a unique look at the common repertoire of the mid-seventeenth to eighteenth-century foundation in Oxford. Click here for a detailed description of the partbooks.

Links for: Mus. 1220: Contratenor Decani, Mus 1221: Tenor Decani, Mus. 1222: Tenor Cantoris, Mus. 1223: Bassus Decani, Mus. 1224: Bassus Cantoris.
 

Mus 1230 - Cathedral organ-book

Organ-book containing accompaniments to anthems and service music, copied for use at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; English, early 18th century, with later additions. The contents partly duplicate those of Mus. 1220-4, the principal set of partbooks in use at Christ Church Cathedral in the post-Restoration era. The contents of Mus. 1230 were copied principally by Richard Goodson Sr, in three layers: (1) items 1-39; (2) items 41-56; and (3) item 61. The last three folios of the first layer (pp. 76-81) are now missing. Blank pages in the volume were subsequently filled by Richard Goodson Jr (items 40, 57-8, 60, 61 (2nd Jubilate only) and 62), and by two unidentified hands (items 59 and 63). Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript.
 

Mus 1237 - 'Siren coelestis' by Georg Victorinus (1638)

Anthology of Latin sacred music, written in a unique notation devised by William Braythwaite. Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus 1287 - Musica transalpina. Altus partbook (1597)

The second book of madrigalles, to 5. & 6. voices. Musica transalpina is famous for being one of the first tangible traces of the vogue for madrigals in Elizabethan England, but it is famous largely by reputation, since no good modern edition has ever been available in print. Bought at auction in Oxfordshire in 1992 (in a lot comprising the items now designated as Mus. 1287-91). Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus 1288 - Musica transalpina. Bassus partbook (1588)

Madrigales 'translated of foure, five and sixe parts, with the first and second part of 'La verginella, made by Maister Byrd, upon two stanz's of Ariosto' [...]. Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus 1289 - Musica transalpina. Bassus partbook (1588)

Madrigales 'translated of foure, five and sixe parts, with the first and second part of 'La verginella, made by Maister Byrd, upon two stanz's of Ariosto'. Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus 1290 - The former booke of the musicke (1591)

Cantus partbook. Contains music by William Daman for the Psalms of David. Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus 1291/A - Fragment of a partbook from a lost set (1601)

Madrigals to five voyces by Richard Carlton. Dedication page only. Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus 1291/B - Fragment of a partbook from a lost set (1627)

'Les pseaumes de David, mis en musique a quatre & cinq parties', by Claudin Le Jeune. Bassecontre partbook; titlepage, dedication and commendatory verses only; music pages missing. Click here for a detailed description of the item.

Mus 1295 (aka MS 689) - Missal, probably Use of Rome, fifteenth century

Eight non-adjacent leaves from a Roman Missal, written on parchment in 'gothic textura rotunda'. Purchased at auction in Geneva, and donated about 1990 by Paul Lewis, father of Jonathan W. Lewis, Biological Sciences MA (1994) and D.Phil (1998), Christ Church, Oxford and David R.Lewis, Master of Studies in Modern Languages, The Queen’s College, Oxford (1998), and MBA, Said Business School, Oxford (2015). Click here for a detailed description of the fragment in the Music Catalogue, and here for a description of the fragment in the Western MSS Catalogue.

Mus 1296 - Violin partbook for fantasia suites

The violin partbook from a set of four volumes, dating c.1640, containing consort music by John Coprario and William Lawes. For a detailed description, please click here.