Birds on the Brain

theenglishladye:

‘My Ladye Nevells Booke’ is one of the most beautifully written music manuscripts to survive from the late 16th century, and is still preserved in its original ornate binding. It was painstakingly compiled by the Windsor-based scribe John Baldwin, who completed work on it on 11 September 1591. Baldwin seems to have worked under the direction of the composer of all the pieces in the book, William Byrd, and clearly thought highly of him, describing him elsewhere as:

“one whose greate skill and knowledge: dothe excelle all at this tyme: and farre to strange countries: abroade his skill dothe shyne”