The ‘Gyffard’ partbooks (British Library, Add. MSS 17802–5) are perhaps the most important source of Tudor sacred music of the mid-sixteenth century, for unlike the only other collection that could reasonably lay claim to that title—the Henrician partbooks at Peterhouse, Cambridge—they have survived intact. Just six of Gyffard's 94 pieces have contemporary concordances, and only three of these are wholly straightforward. Taverner's Western Wind Mass (no. 24) turns up again in John Sadler's partbooks; two voices only of Redford's Christus resurgens (no. 58) are found in Tenbury MS 389 and its companion, the James part-book; and Van Wilder's Pater noster (no. 6) is printed in Susato's Liber quartus ecclesiasticarum cantionum quatuor vocum (Antwerp, 1554). Two of the three problematic items appear to be four-part reworkings of what were originally five-voice pieces. Taverner's Dum transisset (no. 61) appears a5 in both the Dow and Baldwin partbooks; Johnson's Gaude Maria Virgo (no. 85) is found in its five-part version, though textless, in British Library, Add. MS 31390; finally, a fragment of Tye's Western Wind Mass resurfaces in British Library, Add. MSS 18936–9, attributed to ‘Alphonsus’. There are therefore at least 88 unica in Gyffard—a significantly higher proportion than in any other contemporary source of comparable size. Our knowledge of the state of English sacred polyphony on the eve of the Reformation is heavily dependent on these partbooks, for they preserve a representative cross-section of liturgical genres by a wide range of composers encompassing the great and the obscure.

Robert Dow, the original owner of Oxford, Christ Church (Och) MSS 984–8, was the eldest son of Robert Dow (1517–1612), citizen and Merchant Taylor of London. According to the 1568 Heraldic Visitation of London, Robert junior was fifteen at that time, and so was born in 1553; he had four brothers, John, Henry, Thomas and Richard, aged twelve, ten, five and two and a half years respectively. Since both John and Henry attended Merchant Taylors’ School, it is probable that Robert did likewise, though we cannot be certain of this since no accurate register of pupils was kept until Robert Dow senior instituted the School's Probation Books in 1607. Another not unreasonable expectation would be that the young Robert went up to St John's College, Oxford, given his father's munificience towards that College and its strong links with the Merchant Taylors’ Company. However, such an assumption would be unwarranted, and indeed, no Oxford college has any official record of him as an undergraduate. Fortunately in the British Library there are three holograph letters in Latin from Dow to Lord Burghley, dated 20 September, 4 October and 8 November 1573, written ‘Oxoniae (Oxonij), in Collegio Corporis Christi’. Since he does not sign himself ‘discipulus’ or ‘alumnus’, it is hardly surprising that there is no mention of his name in the College's Registers, and therefore the most likely explanation for his presence at Corpus Christi is that he was a gentleman-commoner, though this cannot be verified. Whatever his status, we know that Robert Dow definitely proceeded B.A., for the Oxford University Register of Congregation and Convocation 1564–82 has the following entry for 12 October 1573 recording his supplication for that degree: Supplicat etc. Robertus Dowe scholaris facultatis artium quatenus in studio dialectices quatuor annos posuerit generalis creatus fuerit bacchalaurio xlma respondent ceteraque omnia perfecerit quae per nova statuta requiruntur ut haec ei sufficiant ut admittatur ad aliquem librum logices legendum. Concessa [est] modo determinet proxima xlma 7.

The first part of this study of the ‘Gyffard’ partbooks (Lbl Add. MSS 17802–5) examined in detail the handwriting, watermarks and other aspects of their physical make-up, and concluded that the collection could not have been compiled sequentially, as had hitherto been imagined. Each book was seen to fall into seven fascicles, and arguments were advanced for the existence of three layers, labelled - for the sake of convenience - early, late and latest. A sequel was also promised in which the problems of scribe/ownership, date and provenance would be addressed. Before attempting to identify the person responsible for assembling the anthology, however, one would do well to examine the biographies of the composers there represented, for if it could be demonstrated that the work of certain composers associated with a particular locality was restricted largely to a particular layer of the collection, then such geographical and temporal co-ordinates might be of assistance in confirming the identity of the compiler if they were seen to reflect the pattern of his own associations and movements.

This manuscript consists of the Contratenor only of what was originally a set of six partbooks. Had the collection survived intact, it would undoubtedly have ranked as one of the most important of all secular sources dating from the Elizabethan period, for it comprises a representative cross-section of most musical genres—English anthems, Latin motets, consort songs and instrumental pieces—and its 131 items include many unica. But the sheer size of the anthology is not the only reason why we should lament its tragically imperfect state. Mus. Sch. E. 423 is an important and authoritative source for the vocal music of William Byrd, as Philip Brett, Alan Brown and other scholars have shown. Writing more generally about the instrumental music it contains, Warwick Edwards has stated that its ‘authority as a consort source derives from its exclusion of all but a few faults against other sources’. The manuscript's special relevance to Byrd, then, not the mention the high quality of its musical and verbal texts, makes the loss of its companion books all the more regrettable.

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