The Ritson Manuscript (London, British Library, Add.5665) is a late fifteenth-century English choirbook, that is a major source for English carols. In addition to 44 carols, it includes three masses, 23 motets, several other sacred pieces, and secular works in English and French. Among the composers represented in the book is Sir William Hawte. Along with the Pepys Manuscript it is much less elaborate than the Eton,

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...

and Caius Choirbooks; it contains shorter and simpler pieces which appear to have been written for smaller and less able choirs. The Ritson Manuscript appears, upon internal evidence, to have been the product of at least five distinct hands. It was compiled over a long period, beginning early in the second half of the fifteenth century and ending in 1510, and originated in the West Country. The ''Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music 1400-1550'' suggests it was likely to have been copied at a Franciscan monastery in Devon or possibly Exeter Cathedral. It was later owned by Joseph Ritson, who in 1795 gave it to the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Modern studies

* C. Miller. ''A Fifteenth-Century Record of English Choir Repertory: B.M. Add.Ms.5665: a Transcription and Commentary''. Dissertation, Yale, 1948.

References

* {{Authority control 15th-century books Renaissance music English music Christmas carol collections Renaissance music manuscript sources

See also

Modern studies

References