ABSTRACT
In this study, we evaluate the potential of a data-rich, computational approach to the investigation of the authorship of seventeenth-century keyboard compositions from the Spanish Netherlands. This music circulated in manuscripts rather than in print, travelling along networks of composers, players and scribes in such a way that attributions sometimes become questionable. Since many of these manuscripts were prepared for private use, often by dilettantes, the reliability of ascriptions to composers, if present at all, is low. The majority of the scribes are anonymous and, among the surviving manuscripts, autographs are rare. The resulting uncertainty about the authorship of the compositions poses problems when preparing editions.
