This manuscript is comprised of two late twelfth-century volumes, bound as one, all related to Ely Cathedral Priory (a calendar, the Liber Eliensis, which is a history of the abbey and subsequently the Cathedral priory, and concludes with the Inquisicio Eliensis, the Ely Abbey portion of the Domesday book). The four music leaves are two non-contiguous bifolios, used as endleaves in at the front and rear of the first volume (on fols. I-IIv and 229-230v). Mostly three-voice conductus-motets copied in English mensural notation (the two upper parts copied in score with the text underlaid under the lower voice, and the tenor copied after the two-voice score).

white parchment over wooden boards, old but not original

English mensural

6 accolades of 2 red five-line staves per page

I-IIv, 229-230v

Various foliations at t.r.r. are erroneous

red rubrics and red and green initials (corpus); red-blue initials (music)

ii parchment; ii paper; 256 parchment; ii paper

RISM B/IV 1: A parchment manuscript dating from c. 1200 and containing 256 folios meas. 229 x 164 mm. In addition, there are 2 flyleaves f. I-II and 2 unnumbered paper flyleaves at each end. The binding of white parchment over wooden boards is quite old but not original. Various foliations at t.r.r. are erroneous. This codex is from Ely Cathedral Priory and is principally a history of the isle of Ely, together with the lives of several blessed virgins. The script is a careful semi-Gothic with red rubrics and red and green initials. The music on f. I-IIv and 229-230v is in English mensural notation and dates from c. 1300. It consists entirely of three-part motets with identical text in the upper two parts, hence the score notation. The T invariably follows the two upper parts as an independent voice with no plainsong label. There are 6 accolades of 2 red five-line staves per page and initials are red-blue. The last 3 motets are evidently from the older repertoire, while the texts of the other pieces are tropic to well-known motet or other liturgical texts.

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