ABSTRACT
Oxford, Christ Church, MS Mus. 337 consists of two books bound together in a seventeenth-century leather case stamped with the initials of the owner, ‘FW’. Signatures identify him as the musician and teacher Francis Withey. The first book is Christopher Simpson’s A Compendium of Practical Musick, which Withey bought in Worcester a few weeks after its publication in 1667 for two shillings and a penny. The second is a manuscript commonplace book, comprising nearly 100 leaves and measuring approximately 154 × 100 mm. Withey’s family belonged to Worcester, where his father and uncle were both professional musicians. In the late 1660s Francis moved to Oxford, where from June 1670 until his death in December 1727 he was a ‘singing man’ at Christ Church. Besides his work in the cathedral choir, he was skilled on the viol and violin, as Edward Lowe, the professor of Music in the University and organist of Christ Church, seems to have been quick to recognize.
