Lord Petre’s Gradual
Late-medieval illuminated service book associated with the Petre family of Essex, containing ecclesiastical chants and polyphonic pieces likely used by Renaissance composer William Byrd (c. 1540 - 1623).
ROB 405 is a very fine late-medieval illuminated service book, in an unidentified hand, containing ecclesiastical chants for services throughout the year and added polyphonic pieces that musicologists had believed missing (see: press release: Long lost medieval music brought back to life, 29 March 2016). It is of great musical and historical significance: few graduals survived the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The manuscript is associated with the Petre family of Essex and was almost certainly used by the Renaissance composer William Byrd (c.1540-1623). At the back of the manuscript, are inscriptions that reflect the plight of English Catholics following the Reformation.
The original manuscript would have been used by singers who would have either stood in the choir stalls or at a lectern. Sections of polyphonic notation were added to the manuscript around 1460. Polyphonic singing is where more than one melody is sung at the same time. The music found in the Petre Gradual was a form of improvised polyphony known as ‘squares’ – a now long-lost musical tradition. The gradual’spolyphony was performed by students at the Church of St. John the Baptist, Newcastle upon Tyne in 2016.
When, in 1538, Henry VIII abolished the cult of St. Thomas Becket, the owners of the manuscript lightly crossed-out the service marking the feast day of St. Thomas Becket. Then, when the Latin liturgy was abolished, in 1549, the gradual will have been rendered obsolete. The Latin mass was resurrected in 1553 and, around this time, the manuscript came to be in the ownership of Sir William Petre. He donated the gradual to a church (most likely Ingatestone in Essex), but it wasn’t long before Latin worship was outlawed again and he took the manuscript home, at Ingatestone Hall. There the gradual stayed until the mid-1940s, when it was sold to Bernard Quaritch, and later acquired by collector and bookseller Philip Robinson. Sir William Petre’sheir, John Petre, was a friend of William Byrd who is known to have spent time at Ingatestone Hall. In 1581, Byrd set one of the psalms from the manuscript to music (Deus venerunt gentes).
An account of the gradual is written up on the first pages, reproduced below.
