William Byrd—[Lord Burghley] | The Copie of a Letter Sent Out of England, 1588, Byrd's inscribed copy

William Byrd—[William Cecil, Lord Burghley]

The copie of a letter sent out of England to Don Bernardin Mendoza […] declaring the state of England [...] whereunto are adioyned certaine late Advertisements, concerning losses and distresses happened to the Spanish Nauie. London: J. Vautrollier for Richard Field, 1588.

4to (185 x 130mm), WITH THE OWNERSHIP INSCRIPTION OF THE COMPOSER WILLIAM BYRD ON THE TITLE-PAGE ("Wm Byrde"), also with a letter ("q") in an Elizabethan hand marking its original place in a sammelband volume, later foliation (fols 469-498), library binding by Lloyds of London of grey boards with printed spine label, library ink stamp ("Notts County Library Withdrawn Stock") to front paste-down, printed marginalia trimmed, adhesive remains from removed bookplates to paste-downs

“…For Motets and musick of piety and devotion, as well as for the honour of our Nation, as the merit of the man, I prefer above all our Phoenix M[aster] William Byrd, whom in that kind, I know not whether any may equall, I am sure none excel…” (Henry Peacham)

AN EXCEPTIONAL RARITY: A BOOK WITH THE OWNERSHIP INSCRIPTION OF WILLIAM BYRD, ONE OF THE GREATEST COMPOSERS OF THE RENAISSANCE AND OFTEN CONSIDERED THE FATHER OF ENGLISH MUSIC. Byrd’s autograph is of exceptional rarity: the only auction record that we have found is a document signed that was sold in these rooms in 1954. Only a tiny handful of signed documents and letters are known in institutional collections, chiefly the National Archives, and none of his music survives in autograph. Other than these documents, the only known autograph material of any kind are his ownership inscriptions in a small number of books (ten such signatures are known), which are overwhelmingly to be found in institutional libraries. 

Not only does this book contain an otherwise unobtainable autograph, but Byrd’s ownership of this work provides a fascinating insight into his complicated religious and political milieu. The copie of a letter is a piece of political propaganda believed to be the work of Lord Burghley, purporting to be a letter found in the chambers of a priest who was subsequently executed for High Treason, which describes the defeat of the Spanish in the Channel and the subsequent dreadful losses suffered by the Armada off the coast of Ireland.

Byrd’s ownership of a contemporary report on the defeat of the Armada is particularly significant as he was a committed Roman Catholic who nonetheless flourished at the Elizabethan court. This tension led to extraordinary contradictions: he was a man who was personally known to Queen Elizabeth, but who also undertook clandestine musical performances for Jesuits including Henry Garnet, who was later executed for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. Byrd was employed for decades at the Chapel Royal and was granted a number of privileges by the Queen including, with Thomas Tallis, a monopoly on printing music in England. He dedicated his printed works, many of which had obvious Catholic overtones, to leading courtiers, and had a succession of powerful Catholic patrons who ensured that he could practice his religion more or less openly (he was a known recusant from the 1580s onwards) without suffering crippling fines or imprisonment.

Byrd was protected by the privilege of genius, but anyone who remained loyal to the old faith in Elizabethan England found themselves navigating conflicted allegiances. Neither the Papacy nor the English Protestant establishment made it easy to remain loyal to both the Roman Catholic church and the Tudor monarchy. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that most of the surviving books that belonged to Byrd touch on religious controversy and the deepening political fissure between Protestant and Catholic that was fracturing Europe. The current work provides a contemporary account of an important moment in that conflict, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, which also helped to forge England’s distinctively Protestant identity.

This book was once part of a volume of political tracts published in 1588-90. Six other works that were once in this volume are known: all have Byrd’s identical signature on the title-page (usually written, as here, around the woodcut ornament) and a letter showing its place in the volume. The tract that was the first work in the volume is also signed by “Christopher Byrd”, the name of William Byrd’s eldest son, so the volume evidently remained in the family for some time.  

PROVENANCE:

Notts County Library (withdrawn stamp); Bloomsbury, 24 November 2005, lot 553 (not recording Byrd's ownership inscription)

LITERATURE:

ESTC S2172; STC 15413.5; Kerry McCarthy and John Harley, 'From the Library of William Byrd', The Musical Times, vol. 150, no. 1909 (2009), 17-30 (containing mention of this copy)