Ritson Manuscript

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.^[1] 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 and Caius Choirbooks; it contains shorter and simpler pieces which appear to have been written for smaller and less able choirs.^[2]

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.^[1]

It was later owned by Joseph Ritson, who in 1795 gave it to the British Museum.^[1]

See also

• List of Christmas carols

Modern studies

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