Trumbull lute book (MS Add.

8844)
The Trumbull lute book (MS Additional 8844) is a rare example of a personal lute book
made and used by an English government official and diplomat. Apart from one item at the
end, it was almost certainly copied c.1595 by William Trumbull (1575?-1635), secretary
and later envoy to James I and then Charles I at the Brussels Court of Archduke Albert of
Austria from at least 1605 to 1625.
The manuscript was never bound and so the edges of the pages are badly eroded and 8
folios have been cut out from the original 33 (66 pages). What survives contains 38 items
of music, all but two for 6-course renaissance lute, mainly solos plus 10 duet parts, often
only one of the two, and 2 ensemble parts, which permit a glimpse into how William may
have used the lute book.
The repertory almost exclusively comprises English dance forms, mainly pavans, and
galliards, and only a few arrangements of vocal music and popular tunes. He must have
been quite an accomplished lutenist as the majority require an intermediate standard of
technical ability. He seems to have copied it during his formative years when he probably
took lute lessons as part of his education and hopefully was diligent enough to practise lute
solos for personal recreation. His lute book may also have served the important function of
providing him with parts to use for social music making, playing duets or in a consort, a
practice that he might have continued during the time he was working in Brussels.
When he was compiling his anthology he seems to have had access to lute music of
English court composers spanning much of the reign of Elizabeth I, as the manuscript
includes examples by Philip van Wilder (1), Augustine Bassano (1), Alfonso Ferrabosco
(fragments only of 1), Nicholas Strogers (2), John Johnson (8), Richard Allison (1), Francis
Cutting (1), Anthony Holborne (5), Thomas Morley (1) and John Dowland (1).
John H. Robinson, Lute Society
Information about this document

Physical Location: Cambridge University Library

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Classmark: MS Add.8844

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Subject(s): Lute music

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Origin Place: England

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Date of Creation: c. 1595

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Former Owner(s): Trumbull, William, -1635; Downshire, Arthur Wills Percy

Wellington Blundell Trumbull Sandys Hill, Marquess of, 1894-1989

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Extent: 33 fols Leaf height: 295 mm, width: 195 mm. Staff height: 16 mm, width:
153 mm.

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Collation: The 33 leaves of the manuscript consist of six bifolia, eight incomplete

bifolia (leaf + stub) and five singletons.

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Material: Paper mounted on modern archival paper leaves. Spencer (1980)

identified six watermarks:

fol. 16: a garter surmounted by a crown, a shield within the garter

fols 21, 31, 32: a pot bearing the initials IG
fol. 33: a pot bearing the initials AA, close to Heawood 3551 which is dated 1589
in London books and Briquet 12691 which is dated 1580-86 in France.
fols 17, 25: a pot bearing the initials IC
fols 8, 13: a pot (lacking its base?) bearing the initials AC
fols 5, 10, 11, 12: a pot lacking its base

Heawood observed that pot watermarks of this type dated 1564-98 indicate paper
made in Normandy (Heawood 1930).

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Format: Codex

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Condition: Before its conservation, the manuscript was in poor condition with

losses from the edges of all pages. In most cases the staves have been fully
preserved and this has not resulted in losses of music. The manuscript leaves were
mounted on archival paper with silk gauze in the late 1970s while it was on deposit
at Berkshire County Record Office.

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Binding:

The manuscript was described in 1980 as unbound and appearing never to have
been bound but stitched into a single gathering (Spencer 1980). It was also
described then as 'recently' restored. The limp binding applied at that time consists
of several leaves of archival paper folded into a handmade paper cover.

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Script:

Titles and notes written in italic  and secretary hands.

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Music notation: Tablature principally for 6-course renaissance lutes; three pieces

(items 4 and 40-41) are written for a 7-course lute tuned to D. Right hand
fingering is marked in several of the pieces.

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Foliation:

Modern pencil foliation in the top right hand corner on the recto of each folio,
either on the original page or on the modern paper mount.

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Layout:

All the folios have eight 6-line printed staves with the exception of
fols 15 and 16 where the staves are hand-drawn. The majority of the printed
pages (fols 1-3, 17, 19, 21, 25, 31-33) are designated Fenlon and Milsom's type 4j
(total height 248mm). The staves on fols 4r-14v and 23r-24v are more narrowly
spaced on the page (type 4k with a total height of 224mm). A ninth stave has
been added by hand on fols 5r-16v, 23r-24v and partial staves are added in the
lower margins of fols 5r, 10r, 11r, 16r, 21v, 25r to complete pieces.

On occasion staves are extended freehand into the margins

(e.g. 1v, 5r, 6r, 10r, 11r, 23r, 32v)

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Additions:

An inscription has been added vertically in the left hand margin of fol. 1r in a
contemporary hand: "To his verie ffrend Mr Jno Reynolds merchaunt in melcombe
Regis to his good frend Mr Wm Holman merchaunt ill. to the woorshippfull Henrie
Rogers Esquier".

Another hand has added a note identifying the author of the galliard on fol. 8r: "Mr
Knowles ex."

An erased note in the left hand margin of fol. 3v reads "To his assured ffrend Wm
T Trumball".

A distinct hand has added a note in Flemish in light brown ink, "dat mout ich
hebben" on fols 3v and 14v.

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A faint note at the foot of fol. 33v reads "nostre Roy yne de A Angl".

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Provenance:

The three men mentioned in the note on fol. 1r (John Reynolds, William Holman
and Henry Rogers) can all be identified in Dorset records c. 1600.

The volume was owned by William Trumbull (-1635) and was probably copied by
him. Trumbull was an English diplomat at the Brussels court of Archduke Albert of
Austria. His correspondence demonstrates a keen lifelong interest in music. On his
return from Brussels, Trumbull was granted the estate of Easthampstead Park in
Berkshire.

The manuscript remained among the family papers at Easthampstead Park until it
was deposited on loan at Berkshire County Record Office in 1954 by Trumbull's
descendant, Lord Downshire (1894-1989).

The manuscript was purchased by Cambridge University Library at the Sotheby's

sale of 22 November 1989.

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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:

Manuscript Facsimile

Spencer, Robert (ed.), The Trumbull lute book c.1595, Musical sources vol. 19
(Clarabricken: Boethius Press, 1980).
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Early Edition

Rosseter, Philip (ed.), Lessons for consort : set to sixe seuerall instruments :

namely, the treble lute, treble violl, base violl, bandora, citterne, and the
flute (London: Printed by Tho. Este alias Snodham, for Iohn Browne, and are to be
sould at his shop, 1609).

Modern Editions

Kanazawa, Masakata (ed.), The complete works of Anthony Holborne. vol.1 Music

for lute & bandora (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967).

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

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

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).

Ward, John M. (ed.), The lute works of John Johnson (Columbus, OH: Editions

Orphée, 1994).

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

2002).

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Burgers, J. W. J. (ed.), John Johnson: Collected lute music (Lübeck: Tree Edition,
2001) vol. 1 & 2.

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

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

Secondary Literature

Heawood, Edward, "Sources of early English paper supply", The Library series. 2

vol. 10 pp. 282-307 (1930).

Poulton, Diana, "Checklist of recently discovered English lute MSS", Early

Music vol. 3 pp. 124-6 (1975).

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).

Fenlon, Iain and John Milsom, ""Ruled Paper Imprinted": Music Paper and Patents
in Sixteenth-Century England", Journal of the American Musicological Society vol.
37 issue. 1 pp. 139-163 (1984) http://www.jstor.org/stable/831161 Accessed:
2014-06-25 10:43:05.

Nurse, Ray, "English lute duets: some orphans restored", Lute Society of America
Quarterly vol. 48 pp. 63, 70-71 (2013).

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Fantasia (image 5, page 1r)The hunt is up (image 6, page 1v)The hunt is up (image 7,
page 2r)What if a day (image 7, page 2r)Sacred end pavan (image 8, page 2v)Now to
bed (image 10, page 3v)The passing messieurs' galliard (image 11, page 4r)Clark's
galliard (image 11, page 4r)Delight pavan (image 12, page 4v)Pavan (image 14, page
5v)In nomine galliard (image 15, page 6r)New Medley (image 16, page 6v)Pavan (image
18, page 7v)Galliard (image 19, page 8r)Pavan (image 20, page 8v)Galliard (image 22,
page 9v)Stanes Morris (image 22, page 9v)Flat pavan (image 23, page 10r)Quadrant
pavan (image 24, page 10v)Galliard to the quadrant pavan (image 26, page 11v)Pavan 
(image 28, page 12v)The Earl of Essex's measure (image 29, page 13r)Pavan (image 30,
page 13v)Galliard (image 32, page 14v)Flat pavan (image 33, page 15r)The Queen's
almain / Une jeune fillette (image 33, page 15r)The new hunt is up (image 34, page
15v)In nomine (image 36, page 16v)Pavan (image 37, page 17r)Flat pavan (image 38,
page 17v)Passion galliard (image 41, page 19r)Galliard (image 41, page 19r)Fragment of
tablature (image 43, page 20r)Si vous voulez (image 46, page 21v)Spanish pavan (image
50, page 23v)Proveribus (image 52, page 24v)Aloe (image 53, page 25r)Rogero (image
54, page 25v)Rogero (image 54, page 25v)Tablature fragments (image 55, page
26r) Fantasia (fragments) (image 62, page 29v)Galliard (image 68, page 32v)Galliard 
(image 68, page 32v)Galliard (image 70, page 33v)