41 Services or Service sections, 125 anthems, 3 motets, 1 textless piece = 170
Amner-10, (Bath)-1, Batten-10, Bennet-1, Blancks-1, Boyce-1, Bull-1, Byrd-11, Child-8, [William or Thomas?] Cranford-2, Deering-1, Derrick-1, J. Farrant II-1, R. Farrant-1, A. Ferrabosco I-1, Fido-1, Gibbons-8, Gibbons/W. Smith-1, N. Giles-5, Heath-1, Hilton the Elder-1, Hilton the Younger-2, Hinde-1, Hooper-8, Hughes-1, R. Hutchinson-1, M. Jeffries-1, Loosemore -10, Mace-1, J. Marson-1, Molle-3, Morley-2, J. Mundy-5, Palmer-2, Peerson-2, Portman-1, Ramsey-13, Edward Smith-3, J. Smith-1, W. Smith-6, Stevenson-1, Strogers-2, Tallis-3, Tomkins-10, Tye-2, Ward-1, Weelkes-3, R. White-1, W. White -1, T. Wilkinson-4, Wilson-4, Woodson-1, anon-5
7 paper partbooks of an original 10 (Médius Decani-166 folios, Contratenor I Decani-178, Contratenor II Decani-51, Bassus Decani-164, Médius Cantoris -163, Contratenor I Cantoris-141, Bassus Cantoris-151), 300 x 190. The manuscript is a collection of originally separate bifolios or other small gatherings, with some single leaves. Many of these have page or folio numbers from the earlier collections to which they once belonged. The old numbers are mostly cancelled and replaced with 17th-century foliation. MSS 475, 477, and 480, previously unnumbered, were lost until ca. 1948, when they were discovered behind a panel in the college library. They are bound in black leather, with the Peterhouse College arms and voice designations stamped on the side. The other books in this set were rebound in new covers in the 19th century. Many scribal hands are present; among the identified scribes are William Smith, Henry Palmer, Henry Loosemore, Thomas Wilson, Robert Ramsey, and John Amner. A number of scribes remain unidentified; two of these also copied portions of various liturgical manuscripts at Durham Cathedral (MorehS).
Copied ca. 1625-40. Assembled ca. 1635-43 at Peterhouse College in Cambridge, for use of the college chapel. The gathering and assembling of materials for the partbooks was probably directed by John Cosin, Master of Peterhouse from 1634, whose High Church-oriented liturgical innovations aroused vigorous controversy. Cosin himself commissioned the composition of some of the pieces, and the influence of his ideas is reflected in much of the repertory. Some of the gatherings were copied in Cambridge; others were probably copied at Durham and Ely, and then acquired by Cosin through friends and associates in those places. (Cosin had been a prebendary at Durham Cathedral before coming to Cambridge, and he was also a close friend of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Ely, another supporter of the High Church movement). The books were later transferred from the Peterhouse College library to the Cambridge University Library.
Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music 1400-1550
