Transcriptions of music of the 15th-18th cent. (mostly of the 16th-17th cent.), made largely in the early-19th cent. by various hands from manuscript and printed sources (many evidently in the British Museum Library). Mostly vocal and keyboard music, together with some 17th-cent. consort music. Collected and partly annotated by Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-1876). Three manuscripts, however, date from the late-17th/early-18th cent.: Claudio Monteverdi's 'Ah dolente partita' from the 4th book of madrigals (fol. 234), Stefano Bernardi's setting of the same text in his Concerti academici, op. 8 (fol. 235), and an excerpt from Thomas Tudway's anthem 'Give the Lord the honour due' (fol. 236). The composers represented are:

Samuel Akeroyde, John Alcock, John Attey, John Bartlet, Stefano Bernardi, John Blow, John Blitheman, 'Bouvel' [in MS. Royal 20 A.XVI], John Bull, Dirk Rafaelszoon Camphuysen, Giacomo Carissimi, Nicholas Carleton, Thomas Caustun, John Coprario, William Corkine, Jean de Crespières (Crépinet), John Danyel, Girolamo Diruta, John Dowland, Michael East, Richard Farrant, Gabriele Fattorini, Alfonso Ferrabosco II, Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli, Orlando Gibbons, Petrus Hailland, Robert Haselton, Hayne van Ghizeghem, John Heath, Pelham Humfrey, Clément Janequin, Robert Johnson (c 1500-c 1560), Robert Jones, Josquin des Prez, Robert King, Nicholas Lanier, Henry Lawes, William Lawes, Petrus Lescornet, Jean Baptiste Lully, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Giovanni de Macque, Claudio Merulo (Claudio da Correggio), Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Mortaro, William Newark, Simon Pack, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Arthur Phillips, Francis Pilkington, Costanzo Porta, Henry Purcell, John Redford, Antonio Romanini, William Shelbye, John Sheppard, Agostino Steffani, Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, John Tomkins, Thomas Tomkins, John Tuder, Thomas Tudway, Christopher Tye, Orazio Vecchi.

A detailed listing is enclosed with the manuscript. Some items are included in RISM.