{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Origin", "value": "c. 1588-1595. Oxford.

Ian Harwood (1963) has identified Mathew Holmes as the copyist of MS Dd.2.11 and several other lute books. It has been possible to place Holmes' books in chronological order and Dd.2.11 is the first. It was probably substantially copied at Oxford where Holmes was precentor and singingman at Christ Church between 1588 and 1597. On f. 22r<\/a>, John Dowland is described as 'Bacheler of Musicke'; he received his degree at Oxford in 1588 suggesting that this piece was not copied before this date. On f. 56v<\/a>, Edward Pierce is described as 'Regie Capellae', suggesting that this piece was written in or before 1600 when Pierce left the Chapel Royal to go to St Paul's. Harwood (2010) suggests that Holmes took his books to Westminster Abbey in 1597 when he became 'chanter' and singingman. Some of his later manuscripts were certainly copied there and it seems likely that all the manuscripts were together in Westminster at the time of Holmes' death in 1621.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Oxford." }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Codex: iv + i98 + i + iv leaves. Leaf height: 350 mm, width: 225 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Music notation", "value": "

French tablature on 6-line staves.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "c. 1588-1595." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.2.11" }, { "label": "Additions", "value": "

On the verso of the first flyleaf (f. iv<\/a>), Holmes has added an inscription >('Musica mentis medicina mæstæ') and two pairs of hexameter verse, set out to show the concordant syllables:<\/p>


Quos anguis dirus tristi dulcedine pavit
Hos sanguis mirus Christi mulcedine lavit.
<\/p>


Qui capit uxorem poenam capit atque dolorem
Qui caret uxore poena caret atque dolore.
<\/p>

On the recto of the flyleaf at the end of the manuscript (f. 102r<\/a>), is an aphorism in three parts in Holmes' hand.


Marke this lesson
Serue God euer
<\/p>


Credit not all that thow hearest
Say not all that thow thinkest
Desire not all that thow seest
Spend not all that thow hast
Doe not all that thow maist
<\/p>


But of all thinges take heed of the beginninge
See the middle and praise the endinge
Doo that which is good, say that is true
Cherish old frendes, chaung for no new.
<\/p><\/p>

There is a fragment of lute tablature at the bottom right-hand corner of f. 102r<\/a>, which is not by Holmes' hand.<\/p>

The classmark 'Dd-2-11' has been added in ink at the top of f. 1r<\/a> by an eighteenth-century hand. <\/p>

On f. [i] recto<\/a>) are the inscriptions '44', '135' in ink and 'Dd-2-11' in pencil.<\/p>

Signatures added in pencil in the lower right-hand corner of the first leaf of each quire (ai, bi, ci etc.); the recto of the first leaf in the second half of a quire is marked by a '+'. In Quire , the '+' is marked on f. 82r<\/a> when it should be on f. 81r<\/a>. Probably contemporary with the foliation. <\/p>" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Lute music; Bandora music" }, { "label": "Associated Name(s)", "value": "le Bé, Nicolas; Gonault, Jean" }, { "label": "Format", "value": "Codex" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "This catalogue entry is based with permission on the introduction and inventory of the manuscript prepared by John H. Robinson for the Lute Society facsimile edition: Ian Harwood, John H. Robinson and Stewart McCoy, The Mathew Holmes Manuscripts I: Cambridge University Library MS Dd.2.11<\/i> (Albury: Lute Society, 2010)." }, { "label": "Scribe(s)", "value": "Holmes, Mathew, -1621" }, { "label": "Binding", "value": "

Bound in 2006 at Cambridge University Library in an Espinosa limp vellum style binding, sewn on seven split alum-tawed supports laced through limp vellum covers with an alum-tawed spine, fastened with two bone clasps. <\/p>

Previously bound in 1918 by the Cambridge firm Stoakley. It was half-bound in goatskin with marbled paper sides, sewn on five supports with false raised bands. <\/p>" }, { "label": "Condition", "value": "

The manuscript has suffered considerable water staining and damage. Most of the leaves are stained at the top and the damage at the beginning and end of the volume has resulted in losses of portions of the first and last few leaves. ff. 15, 76 and 78 are missing.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Script", "value": "

A single hand is responsible for the words and music throughout, identified as that of Mathew Holmes (d. 1621). The opening epigram and rubrics are written in secretary<\/i>.<\/p><\/div><\/div>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

MS Dd.2.11 is the first and largest of four lute books, copied probably 1588-1595 by Mathew Holmes. 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 classmarks MS Dd.2.11, Dd.5.78(3)<\/a>, Dd.9.33<\/a> and Nn.6.36<\/a>, 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 (MS Dd.4.23), and four part books for the characteristic English mixed consort of lute (MS Dd.3.18), bass viol (MS Dd.5.20<\/a>), recorder (MS Dd.5.21<\/a>) and cittern (MS Dd.14.24), with part books for bandora and treble viol now lost. <\/p>

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 17th 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.<\/p>

The Holmes lute books are the first English sources to abandon the predominant influence of Italian musicians on the earlier Tudor court in favour of the characteristic forms of English pavans, galliards, almaines and sets of variations on popular ballad tunes, and so collectively preserve the flowering of the Golden Age of English lute music. The 324 items in MS Dd.2.11 are for solo renaissance lute mainly of 6 courses, except for 55 bandora solos and 1 bandora consort part. The contributor of the most music is Anthony Holborne with 28 lute solos and 19 for bandora. He was a highly praised musician and styled himself 'Gentleman and servant to her most excellent Majestie' (Elizabeth I) in his book of cittern solos published in 1597. However, the 20 lute solos by John Johnson, 21 by Francis Cutting and 38 by John Dowland are a very significant part of the music Holmes collected for his first manuscript, mainly copied in Oxford. It is a major source for the music of Richard Allison (8) and Francis Pilkington (8), and many others are represented by one or a few items each, ranging from the great to the obscure and including English composers from much of the Elizabethan period: Robert Ascue (2), Edward Blankes (1), William Byrd (2), Michael Cavendish (1), Edward Collard (2), Mr Lusher (2), John Marchant (1), Robert Parsons (1), Peter Philips (1), Edward Pierce (1), Thomas Robinson (1), Nicolas Strogers (1), John Taverner (1), John Whitfield (1). The genres are also largely typical of English lute music and are dominated by pavans and galliards (26 fantasias, 83 pavans, 84 galliards, 19 almaines, 8 jigs and settings of 15 popular ballad tunes, some in the characteristically English form of a set of variations).<\/p>

In addition to English music, Holmes also copied music by continental composers employed at the English court, including the Italians Augustine Bassano (1), Lodovico Bassano (3), Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder (13), Renaldo Paradiso (1), and the Flemish Philip van Wilder (3). Music by composers with no obvious association with England also found its way into his hands, including one each from the continental printed collections by Emmanuel Adriaenssen, Joan Maria da Crema, Melchior Neusidler and Matthäus Waissel, as well as fantasias by Francesco da Milano (4), and lute intabulations of vocal music by the Flemish and French composers Jacob Arcadelt (1), Derick Gerarde (1), Orlando de Lassus (3) and Claudin de Sermisy (1), as well as the Spanish composer Cristobal Morales (1). Apart from the largest single collection of English lute solos, MS Dd.2.11 is also the largest of only seven known sources of music for the wire strung 7-course bandora, and includes all the known bandora solos ascribed to Anthony Holborne (19), together with a few by Alfonso Ferrabosco (6), Richard Allison (2) and Mr Valentyne (1). The remainder are anonymous, or bear the names of John Dowland (3), John Johnson (2) and Francis Cutting (1). It seems likely that Holborne composed for the bandora, but it is not clear how many of the other bandora pieces were written for the bandora rather than arranged from lute solos of the named composers.<\/p>

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 and patronage often runs in families, 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. The 50 or so dedications in the Holmes lute books include in MS Dd.2.11 a galliard on f. 72v<\/a> by an unnamed composer dedicated to Sir Robert Sidney (1563-1626). On f. 85v<\/a> is Sir Phillip Sydneys Lamentacion<\/i> by an unnamed composer, dedicated to Robert\u2019s brother Philip Sidney (1554-1586), poet, courtier and soldier. On ff. 40v<\/a> and 62v<\/a>, John Dowland's very popular Earl of Essex Galliard<\/i> is dedicated to Robert Devereux, Queen Elizabeth's favourite from 1587 who was executed for treason in 1601. The tune became a favourite well into the 17th century under the title Can she excuse<\/i> from the related song Dowland published. The dedicatee of Francis Pilkington's George Pilkingtons Funerall<\/i> on f. 6r<\/a> was presumably the composer's brother or other family member, but the date of his death is not known. A piece written for a specific event that can be dated is the anonymous lute solo titled Mr Chidleys farewell<\/i> on f. 44r<\/a>, probably marking the departure of John Chidley and Andrew Meyrick from Plymouth with three ships in 1589, a voyage which came to utter disaster and probably ruined the Chidley family. Finally several jigs are dedicated to famous comic actors, presumably celebrating such events as their rise to fame or their retirement from the stage, and it is likely that the actors danced the jigs to the music on stage. MS Dd.2.11 includes versions of jigs probably for the actors Richard Tarleton (d. 1588) on f. 56r<\/a>, Robert Wilson (d. 1600) on 68v<\/a>, and William Kemp (d. 1603) on 99v<\/a>.<\/p>

John H. Robinson, Lute Society<\/p>" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Mathew Holmes lute book" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Suzanne Paul (January 2015), revised and expanded by James Freeman (June 2025)" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Paper, with two distinct watermarks of mills located in the vicinity of Troyes in the Champagne region of France. The leaves of quires 1-5 and 8 bear various marks of Nicolas le Bé, consisting of a capital B on a shield topped by a crown with his name in capitals on a scroll beneath. The marks vary, even within a single quire. On occasion the name is reversed or inverted and sometimes takes the form 'Nicolas'. This suggests that although from same source, the sheets were not taken from a single paper stock. Nicolas le Bé's paper is found in other English lute books and is used exclusively throughout the 'Wickhambrook' lute manuscript. Quires 6 and 7 bear a different watermark in the form of a bunch of grapes with the initials I G at the bottom. François Le Clert identified this as the mark of Jean Gonault." }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "

Note: Quire 7 now sewn between the 7th and 8th leaves, though the original structure appears to have been a quire of 12 leaves (as suggested by the foliation).