MS Mus. 1591

William Byrd (b. circa 1540, d.1623): ‘My Ladye Nevells Booke’, a collection of music for keyboard; 1591. In the hand of John Baldwin, with small, possibly autograph, corrections. Written in ink throughout, on six-line staves, in a calligraphic hand. The manuscript contains 42 numbered pieces for keyboard, all by Byrd. On ff. 193-4 is ‘The table: for this booke’, comprising a list of contents. At the bottom of the table is written ‘Finished & ended the leventh of September: in the yeare of our lord god 1591…by me Jo: baldwine of windsore’. Preceding the music, on f. iv, is a contemporary painting of the Nevill arms, with the monogram ‘HN’. Recent research shows that the ‘Ladye Nevell’ for whom the manuscript was written was Elizabeth, wife of Sir Henry Nevill or Nevell of Billingbere in Berkshire. See John Harley, ‘“My Ladye Nevell” revealed’, Music & Letters, 86 (2005), 1-15. The music has been published in My Ladye Nevells Booke of Virginal Music, edited by Hilda Andrews (J. Curwen & Sons, 1926) and William Byrd: Keyboard Music, edited by Alan Brown, Musica Britannica, 27–8 (Stainer & Bell, revised edn., 1999–2004). See also Oliver Neighbour, The Consort and Keyboard Music of William Byrd (1978) and Hilary Gaskin, ‘Baldwin and the Nevell Hand’, in Alan Brown and Richard Turbet (eds.), Byrd Studies (Cambridge, 1992), 159–73. The manuscript was owned in the seventeenth century by Mary Nevill, Lady Bergavenny (d.1699). On f. iii is a note in her hand suggesting that the manuscript had been presented to Elizabeth I, though this cannot now be verified. It was later owned by Charles Burney. On the sale of his library, shortly after his death in 1814, it was purchased (as lot 561) by Thomas Jones. At a sale of Jones’s collection in 1826, it was purchased (as lot 342) by the bookseller Robert Triphook. It was subsequently acquired by Henry Nevill, 18th Lord Bergavenny and 2nd Earl of Abergavenny (d.1843), and remained in the possession of the Nevill family until 2006, when it was accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the British Library. The acquisition was made possible with additional funding from donors, including the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Art Fund, Friends of the British Library, Friends of the National Libraries, the Golsoncott Foundation and members of the public.

Paper; ff. v+194. 195 x 276mm. Contemporary brown leather presentation binding of embossed strapwork around a central cabouchon cartouche, the corners with scrollwork and shells. The central strapwork and corner scrollwork retain traces of the original black, white, green and red colouring, whilst the exergue and ground are decorated with extensive punchwork of a repeated quatrefoil pattern. ‘MY LADYE NEVELLS BOOKE’ has been embossed onto the front and back boards, and the edges are all gilt over red ink and pricked with a late Elizabethan complex guilloché pattern. Rebacked, probably in the late eighteenth century, with blue silk doublures and retaining the original spine.

1. ff. 1-8. ‘my ladye nevels grownde’.

2. ff. 8-13v. ‘Qui passe for my ladye nevell’.

3. ff. 13v-18. ‘the marche before: the battell’.

4. ff. 18-31v. ‘the battell’. Comprises ‘the souldiers summons’, ‘the marche of foote men’, ‘the marche of horsmen’, the tru[m]petts’, ‘the Irishe marche’, ‘the bagpipe and the drone’, ‘the flute & the droome’, ‘the marche to the fighte’, ‘tantara tantara’, ‘the battels be joyned’, ‘the retreat’. [At end:] ‘now foloweth a galliarde for the victorie’.

5. ff. 32-34. ‘the galliarde’.

6. ff. 34-43. ‘the barelye breake’.

7. ff. 43-45v. ‘A galliards gygge’.

8. ff. 46-52. ‘the huntes upp’.

9. ff. 52v-58. ‘Ut re mí fa sol la’.

10. ff. 58v-61. ‘the firste pauian’. [At end:] ‘the galliard foloweth’.

11. ff. 61-62v. [Galliard].

12. ff. 63-64v. ‘the ii pauian’.

13. ff. 65-66v. ‘the galliarde’.

14. ff. 67-69v. ‘the iii pauian’.

15. ff. 69v-71. ‘the galliarde to the same’.

16. ff. 71v-73. ‘the iiii pauian’. [At end:] ‘the galliarde heere foloweth’.

17. ff. 73v-75. ‘the galliarde’. [At end:] ‘m[superscript]r[/superscript]: w: birde: homo memorabilis’.

18. ff. 75v-78v. ‘the v pauian’.

19. ff. 78v-80v. ‘the galliarde’.

20. ff. 80v-84. ‘pauana the vi. Kinbrugh goodd’. [At end:] ‘the galliarde folows’.

21. ff. 84-86. [Galliard].

22. ff. 86-89. ‘the seuenth pauian’.

23. ff. 89-92. ‘the eighte pauian’.

24. ff. 92-99v. ‘the passinge mesures. Pauian of m[superscript]r[/superscript]: w: birdes’.

25. ff. 99v-105. ‘the galliarde’.

26. ff. 105v-108v. ‘A voluntarie for my ladye nevell’.

27. ff. 109-113. ‘will yow walke the woodes soe wylde’.

28. ff. 113-119. ‘the maidens songe’.

29. ff. 119v-125v. ‘A lesson of voluntarie’.

30. ff. 126-134v. ‘the seconde grownde’.

31. ff. 135-142v. ‘haue with yow to walsingame’.

32. ff. 142v-146v. ‘all in a garden grine’.

33. ff. 146v-148v. ‘lord willobies welcome home’.

34. ff. 149-153. ‘the carmans whistle’.

35. ff. 153v-161. ‘hughe ashtons grownde’.

36. ff. 161-166. ‘A fancie’.

37. ff. 166v-173. ‘Sellingers rownde’.

38. ff. 173v-180. ‘munsers almaine’.

39. ff. 180v-184. ‘the tennthe pauian: m[superscript]r[/superscript]: w: peter:’ [At end:] ‘the galliarde followeth’.

40. ff. 184v-186v. ‘the galliarde’.

41. ff. 186v-190v. ‘A fancie’.

42. ff. 191-192v. ‘A voluntarie’. [At end:] ‘finis: m[superscript]r[/superscript]: w: birde: gentleman of the queens chappell’.