Tenor partbook, one of a set of six partbooks, containing 83 pieces - mostly Italian madrigals with an admixture of In nomines. In 4 scribal hands, one of them also in GB-Lbl Add MSS 40657-61. ii + 69 +ii pages.
Two folios are missing from the Tenore book; one between folios 41 and 42, which are ruled unused pages; the other, torn out between folios 20 and 21, contained pieces Nos. 39 and 40.
The initials "W H" on covers may suggest the books were originally owned by William Herbert, third earl of Pembroke (1580-1630). Once in the possession of John Egerton, second earl of Bridgewater (1623-1688), who has written a shelf-mark on one of the fly-leaves of each volume. Remained in the Bridgewater Library (whose bookplate is found in the front of each volume) until the entire contents of the library were sold to Mr. Huntington in 1917 for location in the Huntington Library.