The Ritson Manuscript is a late fifteenth-century English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 choirbook

Choirbook

A Choirbook is a large format manuscript used by choirs in churches or cathedrals during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The book is large enough for the entire choir to read from one book. Often for polyphonic works all the musical parts or voices of a piece of music are presented on a single...

. Along with the Pepys Manuscript

Pepys Manuscript

The Pepys Manuscript is a late fifteenth-century English choirbook. Along with the Ritson Manuscript it is much less elaborate than the Eton, Lambeth and Caius Choirbooks, it contains shorter and simpler pieces which appear to have been written for smaller and less able choirs. The book received...

 it is much less elaborate than the Eton

Eton Choirbook

The Eton Choirbook is a richly illuminated manuscript collection of English sacred music composed during the late fifteenth century. It was one of very few collections of Latin liturgical music to survive the Reformation, and originally contained music by 24 different composers; however, many of...

, Lambeth

Lambeth Choirbook

The Lambeth Choirbook is an illuminated choirbook dating to the sixteenth century and containing much music by Tudor-period composers. The major contributors are Robert Fayrfax and Nicholas Ludford; between them they contributed at least ten of its nineteen pieces...

 and Caius Choirbook

Caius Choirbook

The Caius Choirbook is an illuminated choirbook dating to the early sixteenth century and containing much music by Tudor-period composers. The book appears to originate from Arundel in Sussex, and to have been created sometime in the late 1520s; the then Master of Arundel College, Edward Higgons,...

s; it contains shorter and simpler pieces which appear to have been written for smaller and less able choirs. Unlike the Pepys Manuscript, the Ritson Manuscript appears, upon internal evidence, to have been the product of at least five distinct hands. It was compiled over a long period, beginning early in the second half of the fifteenth century and ending in 1510, and appears to originate in the West Country. Among the composers represented in the book is Sir William Hawte

William Hawte

Sir William Hawte was an English composer about whom little is known. He was knighted in 1465, and is represented in a number of manuscript choirbooks that survive to this day...

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