An Elizabethan Virginal Book. Being a critical essay on the contents of a manuscript in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge - Naylor, Edward Woodall 1867-1934 (London Dent, 1905)
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who bequeathed this manuscript collection to Cambridge University in 1816. It is now housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. The FVB was once given the nomenclature of Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, although the title cannot be correct since much of its contents were written after her death in 1603.
Naylor, composer and organist, was considered an authority on Shakespeare and music, and was an early exponent of greater musical authenticity.
with illustrations
Keywords: Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, United Kingdom); 16th Century (1501-1600); 17th Century (1601-1700); Keyboard music; Dance; Manuscript; Music history; United Kingdom