In the preface to this book, published in association with The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, Hartzell explains that he started work on a catalogue in the 1970s, basing his researches on work done by earlier scholars. Since then further studies have appeared, and he now thinks it right to include in this impressive volume as many manuscripts as he has been able to identify. With only one exception he has seen all the items included, not only the purely musical manuscripts – graduals, missals, psalters, breviaries and others – but music in as many other documents as he could find, some very fugitive. Considering that many manuscripts have been lost through deliberate or accidental destruction during the centuries since 1200 it is remarkable that Hartzell has identified as many as 364.
The arrangement is alphabetical according to the names of the cities and institutions holding manuscripts. Unsurprisingly, most of the places are in Britain; there are significant collections in Cambridge, Durham, London and Oxford, and considerable holdings in Dublin, Rouen, Stockholm and elsewhere. Within each entry he gives a precise bibliographical description, and the introduction explains in detail the terminology he has used. There is also a discussion of Anglo‐Saxon neums and the other forms of notation used during the period. At the end he provides a bibliography of printed books, and index of incipits and one of subjects, followed by photographs of eight manuscripts.
