Mathew Holmes lute books (MS Dd.5.78.

3)
Dd.5.78.3 is the second of the four Mathew Holmes lute books, copied probably 1595-
1600. Nine music manuscripts in Cambridge University Library were shown by Ian
Harwood in the 1960s to have been copied by Holmes who was Precentor and Singingman
of Christ Church in Oxford from 1588 and then in Westminster Abbey in London from 1597
until his death in 1621. Four of the manuscripts, with the shelfmarks Dd.2.11 ,
Dd.5.78.3, Dd.9.33 and Nn.6.36, form a chronological series largely devoted to tablature
for the renaissance lute. The four comprise the most extensive and important source of
English lute music to survive in the world, totalling over 650 separate items, some
duplicated within or between manuscripts, crammed into all available space of more than
300 folios (600 pages) in total. The manuscripts are the major source of the music of all
the great English renaissance lute composers and preserve a complete cross-section of the
repertoire in common use in England for the period 1580 to 1615. The other five
manuscripts copied by Mathew Holmes are one for solo cittern (Dd.4.23), and four part
books for the characteristic English mixed consort of lute (Dd.3.18), bass viol (Dd.5.20),
recorder (Dd.5.21) and cittern (Dd.14.24), with part books for bandora and treble viol now
lost.
Holmes seems to have copied the four lute books sequentially, probably with some
overlap, the first two manuscripts in Oxford from the late 1580s continuing with the last
two into the second decade of the seventeenth century after he moved to Westminster
Abbey. It is noticeable that his handwriting is bold and clear in the first manuscript, but
gradually deteriorates throughout the series, accompanied by fewer titles and with
composers’ names reduced to initials, together with progressive use of abbreviated
notation of rhythm signs in the later manuscripts. The consort part books he also copied
are presumed to have been used for teaching the choristers in his care and other pupils at
Oxford and Westminster Abbey, but the purpose of the solo lute books is not at all clear. It
is most likely that he chose to collect and record for his private use the lute music in
circulation in the capital, which he first must have had access to when in Oxford and surely
did when he moved to the centre of court life at Westminster Abbey. He may well have
been acquainted with most of the resident and visiting composers still living, and could
have been trusted to borrow their lute books long enough to copy a selection of his choice.
From the high quality of much of the music, it seems he could play the lute to a high
standard of proficiency and for his own personal recreation. Thankfully his hobby of filling
up the four manuscripts obsessively with the huge amount of contemporary music that he
laid hands on over a quarter of a century has turned out to be an invaluable legacy for the
lute revival nearly 400 years later.
The 157 items in Dd.5.78.3 are all solos for a renaissance lute with 6- or 7-courses, except
the very first piece which is for lyra viol. Francis Cutting (26), John Dowland (25) and
Anthony Holborne (22) seem to have been Holmes’ main interests at this period. Daniel
Bacheler (6) is also quite well represented, and lute arrangements of music by William
Byrd (4) also feature. Holmes also seems to have had contact with, or at least access to
manuscripts of, a variety of other composers from the earlier generation of court lutenists
Philip van Wilder (1), Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder (4) and John Johnson (2), as well as
those contemporary with his time at Westminster Abbey, Richard Allison (2), Edward
Collard (3), John Marchant (1), Edward Pierce (1), Peter Philips (1), Thomas Robinson (2),
and the more obscure Robert Ascue (1), Michael Cavendish (1), Daniel Farrant (1), Robert
Kindersley (2), Mr. Lusher (5) and Henry Porter (1). The genres are typical of English lute
music (3 fantasias, 36 pavans, a staggering 75 galliards, 6 almaines, 8 jigs and settings of
11 popular ballad tunes, some in the characteristically English form of variations). French
music is barely present with just one example each of a branle, courante, volte and a lute
setting of a French ayre.
Many lute solos in the Holmes manuscripts have titles with the names of dedicatees,
including royalty, nobility, members of the merchant class, academics or actors from the
London theatres. The more famous can be easily identified, but it is only rarely that the
date or the occasions for which the music was written can be identified. Composers were
probably either commissioned to write appropriately merry or sorrowful music for events
such as marriages or funerals, or else they submitted music with the offer of a dedication
to honour a patron or for direct financial reward, in the same way that they dedicated
whole printed books of music to notable figures to acknowledge patronage or for financial
gain. Among the 50 or so dedications in the Holmes lute books, John Dowland's Lady Rich
Galliard found on fol. 9r (and on MS Dd.9.33, fol. 91v) is likely to be dedicated to Penelope
Devereux (1562/3-1607), daughter of Walter Devereux (1541-1576), 1st Earl of Essex,
whose guardians forced her to marry Lord Robert Rich (1559-1618), 1st Earl of Warwick,
in 1581. She was also the ‘Stella’ of Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet Astrophel and Stella, and
she may also be the dedicatee My Lady P of the anonymous pavan on fol. 55r of MS
Dd.2.11. A lute solo with the cryptic title AHF (Anthony Holborne Funeralls?) on fols 11v-
12r of Dd.5.78.3 is called The Countiss of pembruch Fineralles in the Herbert of Cherbury
lute book (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MU MS 689). It was probably composed to
mark the deaths in 1586 of the father, mother and brother of Mary Sidney, Countess of
Pembroke (1561-1621). The piece titled Mr Ant Mildmaies Paven and its related galliard by
Edward Collard on fols 53v-55r are probably dedicated to Anthony Mildmay of Apethorp
(d.1617); if so they would have been composed before he was knighted in 1597.
John H. Robinson, Lute Society
Information about this document

Physical Location: Cambridge University Library

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Classmark: MS Dd.5.78.3

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Subject(s): Lute music

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Origin Place: Westminster

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Date of Creation: c. 1600 C.E.

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Extent: a-d + 75 + e-h Leaf height: 160 mm, width: 225 mm. Staff height: 12
mm, width: 210 mm.

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Collation:

The manuscript consists of 11 quires as follows:

Four modern paper flyleaves (fols a-d)

Quire 18 (fols 1-8)
Quire 210 (fols 9-18)
Quire 32 (fols 19-20)
Quire 46 (fols 21-26)
Quire 510 (fols 27-35; last leaf missing)
Quires 68-98 (fols 36-67)
Quire 106 (fols 68-73)
Quire 112 (fols 74-75)
Four modern paper flyleaves (fols e-h)
 

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Material: Paper

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Format: Codex

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Condition: There is some staining around the edges of many leaves, particularly

towards the end of the manuscript. Many of the outer corners top and bottom were
repaired with Japanese paper when the manuscript was conserved and rebound in
2006.

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Binding:

Bound in 2006 at Cambridge University Library in an Espinosa limp vellum style

binding, sewn on five alum-tawed supports laced through limp vellum covers with
an alum-tawed spine, fastened with a bone clasp.

The manuscript was previously bound in 1893 by the Cambridge firm Stoakley. It
was half-bound in leather with a French joint and marbled paper sides.

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Script:

A single hand is responsible for the words and music throughout, identified as
that of Mathew Holmes. The rubrics are written in italic and secretary hands.

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Music notation:

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French tablature on 6-line staves copied by Mathew Holmes.

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Foliation:

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Two sets of modern pencil foliation in the lower right and left hand corner of many
leaves. The left hand set is earlier; leaves are numbered 1-19, 19b, 19c, 20-73
and some are crossed out. The right hand set (fols 1-75) is not present on each
leaf; there is not always space for foliation as the text and music extend to the
edge of the page.

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Layout:

Fols 1r-8v, 21r, 70v-74v are ruled with six 6-line staves while the rest of the
volume has five 6-line staves. On fols 7r-v, the bottom of the final stave has been
cut off. In most cases staves are ruled in red or red-brown ink with a rastrum but
fols 64r-74v are ruled in brown ink. An additional narrower stave has been ruled
by hand in the lower margin of fols 9v, 11v, 19v and in many cases (e.g.
fols 12r, 14r, 16r, 17r) a partial stave has been drawn in the lower margin to
complete a piece. On some folios there are vertical pen or pencil lines down the
left hand margin intersecting with the beginning of the staves.

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Additions:

John Dowland has added the title of his piece, "Farwell" and his name in the lower
margin of fol. 44r.

The shelfmark "Dd-5-78-3" has been added in ink vertically in the left hand margin
of the opening leaf in an eighteenth-century hand.

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Provenance:


Ian Harwood identified Mathew Holmes as the copyist of CUL MS Dd.5.78.3 and
three other lute books in 1963. It has been possible to place Holmes' books in
chronological order and Dd.5.78.3 is the second. It may have been started at
Oxford where Holmes was precentor and singingman at Christ Church between
1588 and 1597 but was probably largely compiled after 1597 when Holmes moved
to become 'chanter' and singingman at Westminster Abbey.

It is not known when or where the manuscript was handled by John Dowland who
added a title to his piece, "Farwell"and his name on fol. 44r.

It seems likely that all Holmes' manuscripts were together in Westminster at the
time of his death in 1621. It is not known when or by what means they entered
the University Library. The first reference to Dd.5.78.3 is in CUL MS Oo.7.53, a
manuscript catalogue of the library compiled in 1753.

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

Data Source(s): This catalogue entry is based on an inventory prepared by John

H. Robinson of the Lute Society.

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Author(s) of the Record: Suzanne Paul

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Bibliography:

Early Editions

Barley, William (ed.), A new booke of tabliture (London: Printed...for William

Barley...to be sold at his shop, 1596).

Robinson, Thomas, The schoole of musicke (London: Printed by Tho. Este, for

Simon Waterson, 1603).

Hove, Joachim van den, Delitiæ Musicæ (Ultraiecti: Apud Salomonem de Roy,

1612).

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 

Modern Editions

Simpson, Claude M., The British broadside ballad and its music (New Brunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1966).

Long, Martin (ed.), Daniel Bacheler: Selected Works for Lute (London: Oxford

University Press, 1972).

North, Nigel (ed.), William Byrd: Music for the lute (London: Oxford University
Press, 1976).

North, Nigel (ed.), Alfonso Ferrabosco: Collected works for lute and bandora. Part
1 Lute (London: Oxford University Press, 1979).

Charteris, Richard (ed.), Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder (1543-1588): Opera omnia,

vol. IX Instrumental music, Corpus mensurabilis musicae vol. 96 (Neuhausen,
Stuttgart: American Institute of Musicology: Hänssler-Verlag, 1988).

Nordstrom, Lyle, The bandora: its music and sources, Detroit studies in music
bibliography ; vol. 66 (Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 1992).

Poulton, Diana and Basil Lam, The collected lute music of John Dowland 3rd
(London: Faber & Faber,, 1981).

Robinson, John and Stewart McCoy (eds), The solo lute music of Richard Allison:
with bandora and cittern arrangements (London: Lute Society Music Editions,
1995).

Smith, David J. and John H. Robinson (eds), Lute intabulations of works by Peter

Philips, Lute Society music editions (Guildford: Lute Society,, 1998).


Burgers, Jan (ed.), John Johnson: Collected lute music (Lübeck: Tree Edition,
2001).

Burgers, Jan (ed.), Francis Cutting: Collected lute music (Lübeck: Tree Edition,

2002).

Spring, Rainer aus dem, Anthony Holborne: Music for lute and bandora Rev.
(Guildford: Lute Society, 2002).

Humphreys, David (ed.), Philip van Wilder: Music for lute and chanson
transcriptions for one and two lutes and for voice and lute (Guildford: Lute Society,
2003).

Thematic Index of music for viols: Tablature manuscripts (Viol da Gamba Society,

2011-) http://www.vdgs.org.uk/tab.html.

Secondary Literature

Lumsden, David, The sources of English lute music (1540-1620) (PhD thesis

Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 1957).

Harwood, Ian, "The Origins of the Cambridge Lute Manuscripts", Lute Society

Journal vol. 5 pp. 32-48 (1963).

Harwood, Ian, "The Origins of the Cambridge Lute Manuscripts: A Postscript", Lute

Society Journal vol. 6 p. 29 (1964).

Nordstrom, Lyle, "The Cambridge consort books", Journal of the Lute Society of

America vol. 5 pp. 70-103 (1972).


Boetticher, Wolfgang, Handschriftlich überlieferte Lauten- und Gitarrentabulaturen
des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts: beschreibender Katalog, International inventory of
musical sources (RISM) B vol. 7 (München: Henle, 1978).

Ashbee, Andrew and Peter Lasocki (eds), A Biographical Dictionary of

English  Court Musicians 1485-1714 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998).

McFeely, Julia Craig, English Lute Manuscripts and Scribes 1530-

1630 (2000) http://www.ramesescats.co.uk/thesis/.

Robinson, John, Cambridge, University Library (GB-Cu) Ms. Dd.5.78 (III),

(Christian Meyer, 2000-) http://w1.bnu.fr/smt/0189.htm.

Spring, Matthew, The lute in Britain: a history of the instrument and its

music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Harwood, Ian, "A Lecture in Musick, with the Practice thereof by Instrument in the
Common Schooles, Mathew Holmes and Music at Oxford University c.1588-
1627", Lute Society Journal vol. 45 pp. 1-70 (2005).


Galliard (image 1, page 1r)Pavan (image 2, page 1v)Galliard, My self  (image 3, page
2r)Sir John Langton's pavan  (image 4, page 2v)Galliard (image 6, page 3v)Jig (image 7,
page 4r)Pavan (image 8, page 4v)As it fell on a holiday (image 10, page 5v)Mr D. Bond's
galliard (image 10, page 5v)Exercise (image 11, page 6r)The Shoemaker's wife, a toy  
(image 12, page 6v)Almain (image 12, page 6v)Lady Hunsdon's puffe (image 13, page
7r)Mrs Eleanor Stafford's galliard  (image 14, page 7v)Mrs Frances Taylor's galliard  (image
15, page 8r)Mrs Eleanor Stafford's galliard  (image 16, page 8v)Mrs Frances Taylor's
galliard (image 16, page 8v)Lady Rich's galliard  (image 17, page 9r)Galliard (image 17,
page 9r)Lachrimae pavan (image 18, page 9v)Captain Digorie Piper's galliard  (image 19,
page 10r)Pavan? (image 19, page 10r)Pavan (image 20, page 10v)Galliard (image 21,
page 11r)Toy (image 21, page 11r)Galliard (image 21, page 11r)The Countess of
Pembroke's pavan (image 22, page 11v)Walsingham  (image 23, page 12r)Infernum  
(image 24, page 12v)Sans per pavan (image 26, page 13v)Galliard (image 27, page
14r) Pavan (image 28, page 14v)Galliard (image 30, page 15v)Galliard (image 31, page
16r) Giles Hoby's galliard (image 32, page 16v)Tears of the muses galliard  (image 33,
page 17r)Pavan (image 34, page 17v)Untitled (image 35, page 18r)Balow (image 35,
page 18r)Galliard (image 36, page 18v)Mr Vaux's galliard (image 36, page 18v)Pavan 
(image 37, page 19r)Galliard (image 38, page 19v)Galliard (image 38, page
19v)Hermoza (image 43, page 22r)Galliard (image 44, page 22v)Galliard (image 45, page
23r) Pavan (image 46, page 23v)Galliard (image 47, page 24r)Galliard (image 48, page
24v)Galliard (image 49, page 25r)Galliard (image 50, page 25v)Sir John Souch's galliard  
(image 51, page 26r)Fantasia (image 52, page 26v)Untitled (image 54, page
27v)Galliard (image 55, page 28r)Lord Willoughby's welcome home  (image 56, page
28v)Galliard (image 57, page 29r)Pavan (image 57, page 29r)Galliard (image 58, page
29v)Galliard (image 59, page 30r)Song (image 59, page 30r)Galliard (image 60, page
30v)Almain (image 61, page 31r)Mignarda galliard (image 62, page 31v)Galliard (image
62, page 31v)Almain? (image 63, page 32r)Dolorosa pavan (image 64, page 32v)Pavan 
(image 65, page 33r)Jig (image 65, page 33r)May galliard (image 66, page 33v)Galliard 
(image 66, page 33v)Heigh ho holiday galliard (image 68, page 34v)Muy Linda galliard 
(image 68, page 34v)Galliard (image 69, page 35r)Galliard on a Galliard of Daniel
Bacheler (image 70, page 35v)Lady North's galliard (image 71, page 36r)Pavan (image
72, page 36v)Galliard on Walsingham (image 73, page 37r)Galliard (image 74, page
37v)Earl of Derby's galliard (image 75, page 38r)Aloe (image 76, page 38v)The sick tune 
(image 77, page 39r)Go from my window  (image 78, page 39v)Go from my window  
(image 80, page 40v)Galliard (image 81, page 41r)French galliard (image 81, page
41r) Ground (image 82, page 41v)Galliard (image 85, page 43r)Pavan (image 85, page
43r) Farewell fantasia (image 86, page 43v)Almain (image 88, page 44v)The boar's
dance (image 88, page 44v)Galliard (image 89, page 45r)Galliard (image 89, page
45r) Pavan (image 90, page 45v)Galliard (image 91, page 46r)Galliard (image 92, page
46v)Galliard (image 92, page 46v)Galliard (image 93, page 47r)Fairy round galliard 
(image 93, page 47r)Pavan (image 94, page 47v)Carman's whistle  (image 96, page
48v)Jewel (image 97, page 49r)Galliard (image 98, page 49v)Playfellow jig (image 98,
page 49v)Pavan (image 99, page 50r)Walsingham  (image 100, page 50v)Playfellow jig 
(image 101, page 51r) Pavan (image 102, page 51v)Galliard (image 104, page
52v)Galliard (image 105, page 53r)Galliard (image 105, page 53r)Mr Anthony Mildmay's
pavan (image 106, page 53v)Mr Anthony Mildmay's galliard  (image 108, page
54v)Galliard (image 109, page 55r)Galliard (image 110, page 55v)Mr Knight's galliard 
(image 111, page 56r) Galliard (image 112, page 56v)Pavan Mens innouata  (image 114,
page 57v)Galliard (image 115, page 58r) Fantasia (image 116, page 58v)Jig (image 117,
page 59r)Jig (image 117, page 59r)Pavan (image 118, page 59v)Pavan (image 120, page
60v)Pavan (image 122, page 61v)Lady North's galliard (image 124, page 62v)Galliard 
(image 125, page 63r) Pavan (image 126, page 63v)Lady Russell's pavan (image 128,
page 64v)Dolorosa / Chromatic pavan  (image 130, page 65v)Pavan (image 131, page
66r) Pavan Heres paternus  (image 132, page 66v)Almaine? (image 133, page
67r) Galliard (image 134, page 67v)Exercise (image 135, page 68r)Branle / Courant  
(image 136, page 68v)Volta (image 136, page 68v)Fairy round galliard (image 136, page
68v)Galliard (image 137, page 69r)Jig (image 137, page 69r)Pavan (image 138, page
69v)Countess of Bedford's pavan  (image 140, page 70v)Monsieur's Almain  (image 140,
page 70v)Almain de Duc de Parma (image 141, page 71r)Pavan (image 142, page
71v)Mrs Eleanor Stafford's galliard  (image 143, page 72r)Jig (image 143, page
72r) Pavan (image 144, page 72v)Conde Claros (image 146, page 73v)Courant (image
148, page 74v)Jaymeray tousiours ma phillis (image 148, page 74v)Lusher's almain 
(image 149, page 75r) Grimstock (image 150, page 75v)Almain? (image 150, page
75v)Galliard? (image 150, page 75v)