Mathew Holmes lute book (MS Dd.2.11)

This large volume containing lute music was copied by Matthew Holmes, Precentor and Singingman of Christ Church in Oxford probably between 1588 and 1595. The collection of lute manuscripts copied by Holmes and now in the collection of Cambridge University Library are the most extensive and important source of English lute music to survive in the world, totalling over 650 separate items. The Holmes manuscripts are the major source of the music of all the great English renaissance lute composers and preserve a complete cross-section of the repertoire in common use in England for the period 1580 to 1615.