Ranulph Higden | Polycronicon, 1495, second edition of the first book in England to contain printed music

Ranulph Higden

[Polychronicon. London: Wynkyn de Worde, 13 April 1495]

Second edition, folio (258 x 193 mm), 213 leaves (only, of 398: lacking aa1-e8, g1, g8, and L1-X8), gothic type, 41 lines, double column, several early modern annotations, nineteenth-century red calf, gilt edges, modern red calf, gilt edges, f1-8 and g7 with loss at inner margin, wormholes to q7-z5 (sometimes affecting text), a few marginal reinforcements, some marginal annotations shaved

Second edition of THE FIRST BOOK IN ENGLAND TO CONTAIN PRINTED MUSIC, which appears in conjunction with a discussion of Pythagoras. This copy includes several early modern annotations in two hands, and a sixteenth century English reader has censored every instance of the word "Pope".

PROVENANCE:

"Heirloom in the family of Francis Edward Morris": booklabel

LITERATURE:

STC 13439; R. Steele, The Earliest English Music Printing (Oxford, 1903), no. 1