ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author aims to provide a lens through which to view the huge array of books from the Early Modern period that we call music "theory," by investigating the small subset of titles that were published in England. Thomas Morley was the first English writer to use folio format for a music textbook. The author provides an overview of English "treatises" from the perspective of size and format. Concrete evidence for the importance of format can be found in the series of catalogues of books printed in England or available for sale dating throughout the period under investigation. Morley seems consciously to be setting Morley's book apart from the two 1596 music texts discussed above–Bathe's octavo and Barley's oblong quarto. The didactic texts in folio format are all associated with collections of instrumental music that by convention appeared in folio rather than oblong quarto.
