Cantus partbook, one of a set of five partbooks, containing 150 5-voice madrigals by 28 composers, selectively copied (mostly) from Italian or Flemish prints & fully-texted throughout. In one hand; blank leaves separate sections in different clef combinations. Owned by James Bartleman (English bass, 1769-1821) whose ex libris is pasted into each book, and who added 4 tables of contents and a title page, and also lightly 'barred' some pieces for performance. A few pieces exist only in ms sources,or are unica.

Modern plain binding. The manuscript was unbound when it came to Bartleman c1800

Paper from the Low Countries. Two watermarks throughout: - 1 closely resembles Heawood 481 (which H dates 'Schieland 1602); similar to arms of Burgundy & Austria but Golden Fleece beneath shield is inverted in the partbook paper; - 2 is less frequent (& less clear), showing a cockatrice suspending a crozier from its upraised leg: resembles Heawood 838 (which originated in Holland 1609)

ruled with a rastrum, ten staves per page, staff height 11.2-11.7cm

Scribe adds a rules line between staves for the text.

No foliation or pagination; pieces are numbered consecutively with one madrigal per page

4 incomplete early-19th century tables of contents added by Bartleman

brown ink on good quality paper