A binding fragment, originally pasted as a lining onto the covers of the host volume, 'Les vies des hommes illustres' by Plutarch (Vascosan, 1565). Presumably lifted from the covers during the 1929 repairs of that book, and now tipped into the rear of the book. The shelfmark is that of the parent volume.
Music on the recto in score format, with barlines every 3 semibreves; on verso the inscription "O lux Fayrefax". Though a faburden setting of the 'square' of 'O lux' by Fayrfax exists (in Add. MS. 4911, the 'Scottish Anonymous' treatise) this is not a concordance. Instead it appears to be a student exercise: two scribal hands are identified, with the Tenor and Cantus written by the teacher, and the remaining two voices filled out incompletely by the student. All corrections are in the voices written by the student, whose work is relatively crude.
Similar 'squares' on 'O lux' (though much more sophisticated) can be found in the Mulliner book, the Baldwin Commonplace Book and GB-Occc MS 265, and there is a two-voice proportion setting in GB-Ob 4° W 9 Art. Seld. Magnus Williamson notes 2 printed editions of the 1545 Antwerp Sarum processional that contain polyphonic squares, owned by singers at Westminster Abbey, providing a possible pedagogical environment for this square.
L.8.6 was presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I as part of the 'Royal Library' collection of Bishop John Moore of Ely (1646-1714); it's prior history is unknown. A John Williams signed the top of the index page, perhaps Dr John Williams, Archbishop of York 1641-46, a catalogue of whose books (1634) at St John's College Cambridge contains an entry for 'Les vies des hommes' although there is no evidence that the current volume is that one.