An account book (106 folios) for the household of Lord Henry Stafford and Margaret, Countess of Richmond, his wife, at Woking, Surrey, with a music-bearing cover. The cover appears to be all that remains of a motet manuscript. There are some scribbled notes of 15th century music at the bottom of f. 1.

A few notes are cut away at the top of the page, but, in spite of rubbing and a largeish torn-off piece at the bottom of page 2, most of the music on this bifolio is intact, though this is not the middle of a gathering and it is not easy to assess how many parts may be missing.

Mainly petronian (i.e. it has many semibreve groups and dots of division). The so-called signum rotundum occurs on f. 1v and the semibreve shape with a tail descending obliquely to the left in no. 3 (minims are to be found in this piece only)

accounts are dated from March 29, 1467-May 8, 1468

13 red five-line staves per page

1-2v

Red notes appear in nos. 3 and 4 and the downward-tailed semibreve in no 2. Initials are in red-blue.

paper (corpus); parchment (cover)

RISM B/IV 2: An account book for the household of Lord Henry Stafford and Margaret, Countess of Richmond, his wife, at Woking, Surrey. The accounts are dated from March 29, 1467-May 8, 1468, and are preserved on 106 leaves of paper meas. 306 x 221 mm. The 14th century music used as a cover is larger, meas. 408 x 275 mm. It was doubtless already saved from oblivion in the 15th century by being taken and used as a wrapper for these accounts. A few notes are cut away at the top of the page, but, in spite of rubbing and a largeish torn-off piece at the bottom of page 2, most of the music on this bifolio is intact, though this is not the middle of a gathering and it is not easy to assess how many parts may be missing. There are 13 red five-line staves per page and the notation is mainly Petronian, i.e. it has many semibreve groups and dots of division. The so-called signum rotundum also occurs on f. 1v and the semibreve shape with a tail descending obliquely to the left in no. 3 as well. Minims are to be found in this piece only. There are some scribbled notes of 15th century music at the bottom of f. 1. Red notes appear in nos. 3 and 4 and the downward-tailed semibreve in no 2. Initials are in red-blue. The source seems to be a motet manuscript.

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