ABSTRACT
The collection of thirty-four motets published by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd in 1575 under the title Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. Byrd continued steadily to compose 'sacred songs' after the publication of the 1575 collection. Liber primus and Liber secundus sacrarum cantionum contain between them thirty-seven motets, printed as sixty-one numbers, and more survive only in manuscript. Some of the motets printed in 1589 and 1591 had been circulating for a considerable time before publication, and the earliest manuscripts contain a number of readings that differ in various respects from those of the printed versions. Many of the motets omitted by Byrd from his printed collections occur in sources that point to their composition over the same period as those published in 1589 and 1591.
