ABSTRACT
Ravenscro’s manuscript treatise is a slim volume of 19 folios within an original vellum cover, now in an apparently nineteenth-century leather binding.1 e British Library catalogue calls it ‘Treatise of Musick’, and ascribes it to the early seventeenth century; but there is in fact no title given in the manuscript, and there is virtually nothing in the volume to help narrow the date. e catalogue also notes that Ravenscro’s MusB degree was in 1607, which we now know to be incorrect, although that date has in some cases become attached to the manuscript treatise. For example, Rebecca Herissone characterises BL 19758 as ‘dating from c.1607 since Ravenscro is described as “Bacheler of Musick”’.2 e title given here, ‘Treatise of Practicall Musicke’, is derived from the end of Ravenscro’s second paragraph, where he says he will pass over discussion of ‘Speculatiue Musicke’ and ‘onely treate of practicall Musicke’.
