Consort Music Manuscripts in Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin

Abstract

Archbishop Marsh's Library, otherwise known as the Library of St. Sepulchre, is adjacent to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was founded in 1704 by Narcissus Marsh D. D. (1638–1713), Archbishop of Armagh. Today the library contains over 20, 000 books and 300 manuscripts; the manuscripts and special books, including some music books, are located in the manuscript room, which is on the main landing before entering the first gallery of the library - all items in the manuscript room bear the press mark ‘Z’. To be found among the general holdings is a small, but valuable, collection of music manuscripts and printed books on music; some of the items were collected by Marsh himself, and date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among the seventeenth-century manuscripts is a group which contains instrumental consort music, and these are the ones which will be discussed in this article.