A Medius partbook from a set originally of five volumes. Copied by a single scribe, probably a younger member of the staff of a large secular religious establishment (SandonH). The repertory consists mainly of music in use at Magdalen College, Oxford, during the 1530's. However, the books were not copied at, nor used by, Magdalen College. Rather, they are probably copies of the Magdalen College repertory made for use at one of the New Foundation cathedrals such as Canterbury or Durham (SandonH). It is quite probable that the books came to Peterhouse College in Cambridge through the efforts of John Cosin, Master of Peterhouse from 1634, whose High Church-oriented liturgical innovations aroused vigorous controversy. The books were later transferred to the Cambridge University Library.

The Peterhouse Partbooks are not numbered consecutively as they were not all discovered and included in the library's collection at the same time. For some years they were also referred to by the numbers given to a set of photocopies of the books (which still exist), while three newly-discovered books did not have shelf-marks. The list below gives the sets in order, including the new MSS, and with the photocopy numbers for ease of cross-reference.

Henrician Set
Triplex - MS. 40 - photocopy 471
Medius - MS. 41 - photocopy 472
Contratenor - MS. 31 - photocopy 473 [Note: f. 81 is present but numbered 80 (as well as the preceding folio). Folio 135 is numbered 134 (as well as the preceding folio)]
Bassus - MS. 32 - photocopy 474 [Note: three consecutive folios are numbered '78' and three '79' between fols 77 and 80]

Ff. 1-12 of this book are missing

Sometime between 1856 and 1883, the books were rebound; the original limp vellum covers were replaced by new covers of brown leather on boards

Four different watermarks appear in the manuscript; these are similar or identical to Briquet #12668 [flyleaves only], 12502, 13526, and 1048. These marks indicate that the paper comes from France, more particularly from Normandy and Champagne.

not indicated

Original foliation

Original indices at the beginning of all books except the Triplex, on thinner paper than that used for the music.

paper

The leaves showing folios 36v to 37r were stuck together, and the photographer did not attempt to separate them in order to shoot them. These are therefore not included in the image collection.

Included in the Tudor Partbooks project at the Universities of Oxford and Newcastle.

The leaves showing folios 36v to 37r were stuck together, and the photographer did not attempt to separate them in order to shoot them. These are therefore not included in the image collection.

Digitized with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) for the Tudor Partbooks project at the Universities of Oxford and Newcastle.