The manuscript consists of a small
oblong quarto measuring some 15 by 19 centimetres. It is in excellent condition and retains its original
binding formed from several sheets of rough paper folded, pasted and stitched to a strip of
vellum to form the
spine. The manuscript contains 32 leaves bearing two pairs of hand-ruled six-line
staves on which are twelve short pieces written in a neat
hand. On the first of the two front flyleaves is the inscription:
Clement Matchett 1613, with a table of contents on the
verso. The second flyleaf bears a
Guidonian hand figuring the
Gamut. The end flyleaf bears some
doggerel rhyme. The manuscript is precisely dated on the inside back cover:
Iste liber per me Clement Matchett eiusdem possessorem compositus fuit in Anno Domini 1612/mense augustaneo/1612. The manuscript is now in the collections of
Panmure House in
Aberdeen (Scotland), the seat of the
Ramsays of Dalhousie, under catalogue number En 9448. It is possible that the manuscript found its way to Scotland through one Duncan Burnett (circa 1590-1651), a
Glasgow musician whose own music book is also in the Panmure House collection, and who may have been related to another Duncan Burnett, physician of Norwich, birthplace of Clement Matchett himself. ==The author==