William Stansby and Music-Printing

William Stansby and Music-PrintingAuthor(s): CECIL HILLSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 19, No. 1/2 (1972 Januar-August), pp. 7-13Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23505206 .

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C. HILL: WILLIAM STANSBY AND MUSIC-PRINTING

35 6. Folge, Bd. 4 1863 45 7. Folge, Bd. 6 1873

36 6. Folge, Bd. 5 1864 46 8. Folge, Bd. 1 1874

37 6. Folge, Bd. 6 1865 47 8. Folge, Bd. 2 1875

38 6. Folge, Bd. 7 1866 48 8. Folge, Bd. 3 1876

39 6. Folge, Bd. 8 1867 49 8. Folge, Bd. 4 1877

40 7. Folge, Bd. 1 1868 50 8. Folge, Bd. 5 1878

41 7. Folge, Bd. 2 1869 51 8. Folge, Bd. 6 1879

42 7. Folge, Bd. 3 1870 52 8. Folge, Bd. 7 1880

43 7. Folge, Bd. 4 1871 53 bis 79 1881 bis 1907

44 7. Folge, Bd. 5 1872 80 bis 114 1908 bis 1942.

Formatwechsel: 4'

Deutsche Musikbibliographie Bearbeitet von der Deutschen Bücherei. Leipzig

115 bis 116 1943 bis 1944

[117 nicht erschienen] 118/119 Mai 1945/1947. Formatwechsel: 8°

120 ff. 1948 ff.

CECIL HILL (ARMIDALE, AUSTRALIA)

William Stansby arid Music-Printing

Of nearly four hundred titles printed by William Stansby in the forty-two years that

he was active only eight are musical, and they were spread over a period of twenty-eight

years. In view of this a note on Stansby and his connections with music-printing may be

worth making. An entry in the Registers of the Stationers' Company dated 12 January 1590/1, recording

his apprenticeship to John Windet, gives his origins: —

master windet william Stansby son of Richard Stansby of HXON cutler / hath put him self

Apprentice to John wyndet citizen and Stacioner of / London for vij yeresi

begynnynge at Christmas Anno XXIJdo / Regin(a)e Elizabeth(ae)

the customary fee of 2s. 6d being paid.1 The duration of an apprenticeship was "not less

than seven years and, according to an Act of Common Council in 1556, at least as much

longer as would make the apprentice free only at the age of twenty-four".2 Stansby served

only six years, since on 7 January 1596/7 he was "sworne and admitted a freeman of this

Companye" under the sponsorship of Windet, paying the freedom fee of 3s. 4d. However,

he had attained the full age of twenty-four, since it is clear he was the William, son of

Richard Stansby, who was baptised at St. Mary Major, Exeter, on 8 July 1572.' Windet may also have had connections with Exeter, providing the initial contact between

him and Stansby. The name is found in Elizabethan Devon, though the only reference

1 Edward Arber, ed., A transcript of the registers of the Stationers' Company, 1557—1640. Vol. II, p. 173. ! Cyprian Blagden, The Stationers' Company: a history 1403—1959, George Allen and Unwin (1960), p. 35. ' I am indebted to the City Librarian, Exeter, for information on the Stansby and Windet families.



8 C. HILL: WILLIAM STANSBY AND MUSIC-PRINTING

noted in Exeter is to an Edward Winditt, servant to Richard Collins, cutler, who gave evidence at a murder trial in 1583.4 Also, the undernoted title was entered to Windet on

1 February 1587/8, and subsequently transferred to Stansby on 11 September 1611: —

John wyndette / Entred vnto him, vppon Condition that yt maye be lycenced vnto him hereafter

to prynte / A booke intituled / To the righte worshipfull grave and prudente Senators, master John Peryam maiour of Excester / and to the aldermen and his

brethren of the common counsell of ye same

Stanby's first title, the anonymous The policy of the Turkish Empire, was entered with

the Company on 28 April 1597 and printed the same year by Windet on Stansby's behalf.

This reliance on Windet suggests that he continued to work in Windet's shop, perhaps as foreman or supervisor of Windet's other apprentices,5 though probably not enjoying

any form of partnership. Stansby's own business grew slowly. For the thirteen years prior to 1611 only twenty-six titles from him have survived, few of which were entered at

Stationers' Hall. Windet died in 1611, probably accounting for Stansby's business picking

up sharply in that year. On 11 September Mistress Windet transferred the copyright of

a large number of her late husband's titles to his most successful and perhaps favourite

apprentice, Stansby, of which one, Hooker's Of the laws of ecclesiastical polity, was

immediately reprinted. We also find that the number of his own titles increased by

twenty-two in that year.

Strangely, only one of Windet's musical titles passed to Stansby, Greaves's Songs of

sundry natures, 1604, which apparently he did not reprint.6 There were twenty-nine editions of the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter and thirteen titles of the music of Dowland,

Greaves, Hume, Alison, Bartlet, Cooper, Michael East, Ford and Jones. (Stansby did print four editions of the psalter in 1631—33, but these have no connection with Windet's work.) At the time of publishing Hume's The first part of ayres in 1605 Windet was "dwelling at the Signe of the Crosse Key es at Powles Wharfe". In 1606 he moved to a shop in

St. Dunstan's Churchyard, Fleet Street, from which John Bartlet's A book of ayres, 1606,

John Cooper's Funeral tears, 1606, and Thomas Ford's Music of sundry kinds, 1607,

appeared, books which Stansby doubtless saw through the press. It was probably in that

shop that Stansby printed in 1610 Corkine's Ayres to sing and play to the lute, as indicated

by the title-page, suggesting that Stansby was still in Windet's employ. On 3 September 1611, a few days before Stansby acquired Windet's stock, another

record was made in the Registers of the Stationers' Company which was to concern Stansby nearly fifteen years later. Thomas Este had recently died and by order of the Court of

Assistants Mistress Este's interest in her late husband's musical titles was transferred to a consortium of Matthew Lownes, John Browne and Thomas Snodham. The transfer

seems to have been a formality, since only one of the titles appears to have been reprinted, Morley's First book of canzonets in 1619.7 After Snodham's death his widow's share in

the entire list was transferred on 23 February 1625/6 to Stansby, together with Byrd's Psalms, songs and sonnets, 1611, first entered to Snodham on 22 April 1611, and

Dowland's First book of ayres, 1597, first entered to Peter Short on 31 October 1597 and

reprinted by Lownes, Browne and Snodham in 1613. The music-books were only a small

4 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report, 1916, p. 57. The trade connection of cutlery may be significant. 5 D. F. MacKenzie, Stationers' Company Apprentices 1605—1640, University of Virginia (1961), p. 28. 6 None of these titles passed to anyone else either. t STC 18120.



C. HILL: WILLIAM STANSBY AND MUSIC-PRINTING 9

part of one of the largest transfer lists in the early registers of the Company; that section

reads: —

MVSICKE /. Birds booke of Psalmes Songes and Sonetts Mistris

Birds lullaby of .5. partes Snodhams

Birds second sett to. 3. 4. 5. and 6. partes parte of

Birds .5. parts Latin liber primus theise

Batesons sett to. 3. 4. 5. and 6. partes bookes of

BATHes Introduction to musique8 Musicke

Dowlands second booke of Ayres by Patent

MoRLEYes. 2. parts English and Italian of priuiledg. MoRLEYes 3. parts MoRLEYes 4. parts MoRLEYes ffalaes MoRiEYes selected of .5. parts MoRiEYes ORIANAes to .5. and .6. parts ORLANDoes .2. parts KYRBYes sett to. 4. 5. and 6. parts WYLBYes ferste sett to .3. 4. 5. and. 6. parts WYlKEYes sett to .3. 4. 5. and 6. parts WYLKEYes ffalaes Wylks .5. and .6. parts Youngs first sett to .4. 5. and 6. parts Youngs second sett to. 5. and .6. parts. Dowlands booke of Ayres9

Not all Stansby's imprints have survived. One assumes that he did print one or both

of Stephen Egerton's The Boaring of the Eare and Demeanour in hearing, both entered at

Stationers' Hall on 27 May 1623, though both now appear to be ghosts. The same may

be true of some of these music-books. We know that he reprinted Morley's Canzonets, or

little short songs to three voyces in 1631,10 though only one copy has survived. Specific

information on how many were reprinted along with the newly published collections of

Peerson, 1630, Porter, 1632, and Michael East, 1638, would add significant evidence of

the degree of continued interest in the music of the earlier part of the century. By 1638,

when Stansby died, any interest had passed, and in the following Spring Mistress Stansby didn't bother to transfer these music books along with the main stock to Richard Bishop;

Bishop had in fact paid Stansby £700 for the business some time before he died.11

The quality of English music printing in the early seventeenth century was poor, caused

mainly by the continued use of worn type and the inferior paper on to which it was pressed. A comparison of the Tallis and Byrd Cantiones sacrae of 1575, which is beautifully

printed with complete clarity in the underlay, with almost any music book from the early seventeenth century illustrates the latter's inferiority. In Thomas Este's books there was

a progressive deterioration from those of 1588 (Yonge's Musica transalpina and Byrd's

Psalmes, sonets and songs and the three masses) down to the Triumphs of Oriana, 1601,

8 Este held the copyright on both of Bathe's books. The first, A brief introduction to the true art of music, was printed in 1584 by Abel Jeffes, but transferred to Este on 31 October 1597. This is now a ghost. The other, A brief introduction to the skill of song, was entered to Este on 22 September 1596 and printed without date. 9 Dowland's First book of ayres. See: Arber, op cit., Vol. Ill, p. 470. 1» STC 18124. 11 Arber, op. cit., Vol. Ill, p. 701.




and no improvement appears in the work of Short, Windet, Stansby or the Lownes, Browne

and Snodham group. One of the questions outstanding is the ownership of type in London

at this time. It would have been uneconomic for each printer to own a case of not

inexpensive type in view of the infrequency of musical work; and it is most unlikely

that anyone owned both the standard size of music-type and the smaller founts used in

a number of psalters. While there is no evidence in the Stationers' Company records of

a formal music stock, in the sense of the English and other stocks, it is likely that it did

own a case of each size of music-type for loan to the recognized music printers, and

probably it had more than one of the standard size. It is significant that the case used

by Este for Dowland's Second book of ayres and the reprint of Morley's Ballets to five

voyces got a distinct refresher in 1600; yet the case he used for Triumphs of Oriana, 1601,

shows the deterioration of previous years.

Quite apart from the quality of his type, Stansby was at times slovenly and inaccurate,

and could certainly have improved his work. He was admonished on 7 September 1635

for poor workmanship: — "Whereas the Stockkeepers hath putt the Psalter in 24. to

M.r Stanby to be printed, and the same being very badly done insomuch that they are

vnfitt for sale..12 He was not alone in receiving such a reprimand, but on this occassion

it may have been due mostly to his advancing years and failing health.

Stansby's character as revealed by the Stationers' Company records is that of a rough

diamond whose relations with his colleagues and the Company's officials were not always cordial. Though a liveryman and, in 1625, a stockkeeper for the English Stock, he never

achieved higher office. He was fined on several occasions for printing other people's books

and for not entering his own. These were matters on which the Company tried to be very

strict, and Stansby was one of many against whom the Company took action over the

years. However, it is his manner which prompts amusement. On 5 November 1610 he

was fined three shillings "for vsing vndecent language to John Hardy the officer of the

Companie".13 On 7 August 1620 his bad language and rebellious character got him into

serious trouble. He was sent to prison and fined forty shillings "for printing a book of

m' Lidiatc w,hout entrance & obstinately refusing to come to the wardens & for vsing vnfit

ting speaches",14 Court Book C carries the entry for 4 December of that year: — "It is ordered

that wm Stansby shall bring his fine of 40s vpon the 2d monday in the next moneth".15

He didn't, and the Book of Fines does not record payment until nearly four years later,

on 1 September 1624, when, after being pardoned, he paid only 3s . 4d of the original

forty shillings.16 But a more serious affray came later and nearly brought Stansby to what

might have been ruin. On 30 June 1627 the Company went so far as to sequester his

share of the English stock, a very heavy penalty, and banned him from the Hall:— "It is

ordered that mr Stansby for iniurious and reproachful words vsed before our mr openly in the hall.. ,".17 This sentence was commuted on 3 October to a fine of twenty shillings,

provided the master, Bonham Norton, was prepared to accept an apology.18 Court Book C

under 19 November records the fine as paid, but that "the board gave him backe againe

12 Wm. A. Jackson, ed., Records of the Court of the Stationers' Company 1602—1640, Bibliographical Society (1957), p. 271. « Ibid., p. 446. 14 Ibid., p. 465. 1« Ibid., p. 131. 1« Ibid., p. 471. " Ibid., p. 196. 12 Ibid., p. 197-8.



C. HILL: WILLIAM STANSBY AND MUSIC-PRINTING 11

Xs ex gra' ",19 which conflicts slightly with an appendage to the entry in the Book of Fines

under 3 October, which states, "he afterwards paid Xs and it was accepted of".20

Stansby's musical titles, excluding the four editions of the psalter, are as follows: —

I Ayres, / to Sing and Play / to the Lvte and / Basse Violl. / With Pauins Galliards, Almaines, and / Corantos for the Lyra / Viole. / By William Corkine. / (vignette) / LONDON / Printed

by W. Stansby for lohn Browne, and are to be sold at his / Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church

yard in Fleete-streete. / 1610. /

upright folio, 22 x 34V2 cms.

Sig: (A)-F2, Gr; no pagination STC 5768

Not entered at Stationers' Hall

Copies: British Museum, Glasgow Euing Library, Royal College of Music

II MELISMATA / Mvsicall / Phansies. / Fitting the Covrt, Citie, and Covntrey / Hvmovrs. /

to 3, 4, and 5. Voyces. / To all delightfull, except to the Spitefull, / To none offensive, except to the Pensive. / (vignette)21 / LONDON / Printed by William Stansby for Thomas Adams. 1611. /

upright quarto, 14 x 20 cms.

Sig: A—F422; no pagination STC 20758

Entered at Stationers' Hall on 19 March 1611

Copies: British Museum, Bodleian Library, Library of Congress

III The Teares or / LamentacioNs of / a sorrowfvll / Sovle: / Composed with Musicall Ayres and Songs, both / for Voyces and diuers Instrumentes. / Set foorth by Sir William Leighton

Knight, one of his / Maiesties Honourable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners. / And all Psalmes

that consist of so many feete as the fiftieth23 Psalme, will goe to / the foure partes for

Consort: / (vignette)24 / London / Printed by William Stansby. 1614. /

upright folio, 21 x 334/2 cms.

Sig: -j2, a—i2, A—G2, Aa—Nn2; no pagination STC 15434

Not entered at Stationers' Hall25

Copy: British Museum

IV TRENCH / Covrt-aires / With their Ditties Englished, / Of foure and fiue Parts. / Together

with that / of the Lvte / Si proprius stes, / Te copient magis, & decies repetita

placebunt. / Collected, Translated, Published / By ED: FILMER, Gent: / Dedicated to the

Queene. / ... Gratia Regnum / Pieriis tentata modit; ne forte pudori / Sit mihi Musa lyra solers, & cantor Apollo. / (vignette)26 / London, / Printed by William Stansby. 1629. / Cum

Priuilegio. /

upright folio, 19V2 x 31 cms.

»« Ibid., p. 198. " Ibid., p. 475. 21 A smaller version of the vignette of the previous imprint. The motto is "Thou shalt labour for peace and plenty". 22 E'r is incorrectly headed "Country Pastimes". 23 This should read "fifty-first". 24 This is a circular stave containing a five-part wordless round. Surrounding the circle are the names

of the composers represented, excepting Leighton and Weelkes. It encloses the personal insignia of Prince

Charles over a fleur-di-lis. See my edition, Early English Church Music, Vol. XI, pp. ix and 216. 25 The book of words, published under the same title, was entered to Ralph Blower on 25 January 1613.

The note on the fly-leaf of the British Museum copy of Stansby's imprint that it was entered on that day is incorrect. 24 The same vignette as in Corkine's Ay res.




Sig: (2), (A)—M2; no pagination STC 10869


Copies: British Museum, Henry E. Huntington Library, Oxford Christ Church

V Cantvs27 / Mottects / or / Grave Chamber / Mvsique. / Containing Songs of fiue parts of

seue- / rail sorts, some ful, some Verse and Chorus. / But all fit for Voyces and Vials, with an

Organ / Part; which for want of Organs, may be performed on Virginals, / Base-Lvte,

Bandora, / or Irish Harpe, / ALSO, / A Mourning Song of sixe parts for the Death of / the

late Right Honorable Sir Fvlke Grevil,28 / Knight of the Honourable order of the / Bath, Lord

Brooke, Baron Brooke of Beauchamps- / Court in the Countie of Warwicke, and of his Maiesties

most honourable priuie / Councell, &c. / Composed according to the Rules of Art. / By M. P.29

Batcheler of / Mvsiqve. / LONDON. / Printed by William Stansby. 1630. /

upright quarto, 16 x 2P/2 cms.

Sig: (2), B—D4; no pagination STC 19552


Copies: British Museum, Glasgow Euing Library, Henry E. Huntington Library

VI Canzonets / or Little Short / Songs to three / Voyces : / Published / by / Thomas Morley, / Bacheler of Musicke, and one of / the Gent, of her Maiesties / Royall Chappel. / Now newly Imprinted / with some Songs added by the / Avthor. / London, Printed by William Stansby, / Richard Hawkings, George / Latham, 1631. / Come Priuilegio. / Cantvs30 /


Sig: (A)—E4; no pagination STC 18124

Entered at Stationers' Hall on 23 February 1625/6

Copy: British Museum

VII Madrigales / and / AYRES. / Of two, three, foure and fiue Voy- / ces, with the continued

Base, with / Toccatos, Sinfonias and / Rittornelllos to them. / Öfter the manner of Con. sort Musique. / To be performed with the Harpese- / chord, Lutes, Theorbos, Base Violl, / two

VIOLINS, or two / VIOLS. / Published / By Walter Porter, one of the Gentlemen of his Maiesties / Royall Chappell. / London, / Printed by William Stansby. / 1632. / Cum Priui

legio. / CANTO31 /


Sig : (A)—A3, B—E4, P ; no pagination STC 20121


Copies: British Museum, Folger Shakespeare Library (tenor only)

VIII Bassvs.82 / the / Seventh Set of / Bookes, / Wherein are Duos for two Base Viols, so composed, though there be but / two parts in the eye, yet there is often / three or foure in the eare. / Also Fancies of 3. Parts for two treble / Viols, and a Base Violl: so made, as they / must be

plaid and not sung. / Lastly ayerie Fancies of 4. Parts, that may be / as well sung as plaid. /

Lately set out by Michael East / Bachelor of Musicke, and Master of the / Choristers in the

27 Also parts for Altus, Contratenor, Tenor, Bassus and Organ. 28 Grevil died on 30 September 1628. 2l) M. P. = Martin Peerson. 30 Also parts for Altus and Bassus. " Also parts for Alto, Quinto, Tenor and Basso. The Basso is in two versions, one wordless with continuo figuration, the other with words and no figuration. See: Ian Spink, Walter Porter and the last book of English madrigals, in: Acta musicologica, Vol. XXVI, p. 18. 32 Also parts for Cantus primus, Cantus secundus and Alms.



C.J.BRADLEY: THE DICKINSON CLASSIT1CAT10N FOR MUSIC 13

Cathedrall Church / of Litchheld. / London, / Printed for William Stansby, and George Latham, / 1638. / Cum Priuilegio. /


Sig: (2), B—D4, E2; no pagination STC 7467


Copies: British Museum, Royal College of Music, Oxford Christ Church

CAROL JUNE BRADLEY (BUFFALO, NEW YORK)

The Dickinson Classification for Music

An Introduction*

George Sherman Dickinson, 1888—1964, was educated at Oberlin College where he

subsequently taught for six years prior to his thirty-seven year tenure at Vassar College. Professor Dickinson, a charter member and past president of both the American Musicolog ical Society and the Music Library Association, was Professor of Music at Vassar College from 1916 to 1953. It was in his capacity as first Music Librarian at Vassar (1927—1953) that he developed his Classification of Musical Compositions.1

The Dickinson Classification consists of ten divisions:

Miscellaneous

0 Several or special classes:

Manuscripts 01

Incunabula, rare editions 02

Facsimiles 03

Monuments (Denkmäler) 04

Collected works of one composer 05

Thematic catalogues 055

Partial collections, several classes, of one composer 06

Methods, tutors, etc., with some text 07

Other miscellaneous 08

Historical collections compiled to illustrate

the history of music or some phase of it 09

Instrumental

1 Keyboard Clavier: Pianoforte 11

Harpsichord Clavichord

Virginals

* The author is Associate Music Librarian, State University of New York at Buffalo. Formerly Music

Cataloguer at Vassar College (1960—1967), she is the author of the first cataloguing and classification

manual appropriate to the Dickinson Classification. — Cette étude complète l'ensemble des articles consacrés

aux bibliothèques musicales américaines publiés dans les cahiers 1969/3, 1970/3 et 1971/1—2 de notre revue

(Note de la rédaction). 1 George Sherman Dickinson, Classification of Musical Compositions; a Decimal-Symbol System (Pough

keepsie, New York: Vassar College, 1938).



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