Five partbooks of a set originally of six volumes, bound together (in order: A, Sex, T, Q, D). One scribe copied the motets; another scribe copied the Masses, on different paper. Copied in Scotland, possibly at Lincluden, a college housed in a former Benedictine monastery, near Dumfries, Kirkcudbrightshire. Inscription on f. Ill: 'Robert dowglas with my hand at the pen William fische[ar].' Robert Douglas (ca. 1530-1609), the possible original owner of the manuscript, was appointed Provost of Lincluden College in 1547. He was at the University of Paris during most of the 1550's. Upon his return to Lincluden in 1557, he probably brought with him three Attaingnant prints of 1542, from which some of the motets in this manuscript were copied.

An inscription on f. 1, in the hand of the 19th-century Scottish antiquarian David Laing, states: 'Antiphonarium in usum Ecclesiae Dunkeldensis'; this reference to Dunkeld Cathedral (in Perthshire) as the place of origin and use of the manuscript may have resulted from Laing's misreading of a contemporary inscription, in which he interpreted the abbreviation 'Linklden' (= Lincluden) as 'Dunklden' (= Dunkeldensis) (ElliottCM).

The manuscript was in the University Library at Edinburgh by 1695.

Some damp-staining. There are several folios missing from the ends of volumes 1, 4 and 5 resulting in the loss of part of the Mass Cantate Domino (& perhaps accounting for the loss of most parts of Ashwell's Mass).

Modern covers of yellow calfskin.

WillsherM states 'from the watermark we learn that the paper is of early 16th-century Normandy make' - an observation not confirmed by others.

black void mensural

Two sets of foliation; the first counts only folios with music, the second includes the original parchment covers of the books

Initials in red ink

paper, except for parchment folios at beginning, end, and between each of the partbooks. The motets and masses are copied on different paper; although the bifolio f. 114/121, in the motet section, is of the same type as that used for the masses (WarwickD).