Project overview
This project explores the afterlives of medieval music manuscripts and their preservation and transformation in
Renaissance England. It centres on a printed book (1569) with manuscript flyleaves (Oxford, Bodleian Library,
Wood 591) tracing ownership to Henry Ferrers, an antiquary linked to the Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries.
By consulting Ferrers’ personal papers and other sources of medieval music associated with him and his
circle, the project investigates how antiquaries acquired and used fragments of medieval music when Latin
liturgical material was religiously sensitive, and sometimes dangerous to own. While early antiquaries acted as
preservers of the past, this study shows they also played a role in manuscript transformation—dismantling
books, recycling leaves, and reshaping sources according to early modern tastes. These fragments are
witnesses to both medieval music and post-Reformation England. This project asks if their survival was
accidental or they held cultural, historical, or religious meaning for their collectors.
Renaissance England. It centres on a printed book (1569) with manuscript flyleaves (Oxford, Bodleian Library,
Wood 591) tracing ownership to Henry Ferrers, an antiquary linked to the Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries.
By consulting Ferrers’ personal papers and other sources of medieval music associated with him and his
circle, the project investigates how antiquaries acquired and used fragments of medieval music when Latin
liturgical material was religiously sensitive, and sometimes dangerous to own. While early antiquaries acted as
preservers of the past, this study shows they also played a role in manuscript transformation—dismantling
books, recycling leaves, and reshaping sources according to early modern tastes. These fragments are
witnesses to both medieval music and post-Reformation England. This project asks if their survival was
accidental or they held cultural, historical, or religious meaning for their collectors.
