First edition. The cleric and musicologist Rev. E.H. Fellowes (1870-1951) was educated at Winchester College and Oriel College, Oxford. Following clerical positions at St Anne’s Wandsworth, Fellowes was appointed Minor Canon and Precentor of Bristol Cathedral in 1897, and then a Minor Canon of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in 1900. In tandem with his clerical career, Fellowes undertook extensive studies on English music, publishing a number of works before the appearance of the first volume of his comprehensive The English Madrigal School in 1912 (the work was completed in 36 volumes in 1924). The preface of English Madrigal Verse 1588-1632 is dated 8 July 1917, but a postscript of 31 December 1919 explains that ‘[t]he delay in publication of this volume has been necessitated by the abnormal conditions resulting from the Great War’ (p. xx). ¶¶

The work is divided into two parts – ‘The Madrigalists’ (pp. [1]-300) and ‘The Lutenists’ (pp. [301]-640) – each prefaced by a list of contents and followed by notes and an index of first lines. The work was well-received, and a contemporary reviewer wrote that ‘[t]he Editor’s task in transcribing this enormous mass of songs from the song-books and reducing them to something like their original form has been a very arduous one: and our gratitude is due to him for the vast number of practically unknown lyrics, some of very fine quality, which he has made at last accessible to all’ (The Modern Language Review, vol. 16 (1921), pp. 332-336, at p. 332). In the present century, Hammond describes English Madrigal Verse 1588-1632 as a ‘valuable single-volume anthology of poetic texts of most of the madrigal collections and songbooks printed in England between 1588 and 1632’. A second edition was published in 1929, and a posthumous third edition, revised and enlarged by Frederick W Sternfeld and David Greer, was issued in 1967. Fellowes’s later works included The English School of Lutenist Song-Writers, 32 vols (1920-1932), The English Madrigal Composers (1921), William Byrd (1923), The English Madrigal (1925), Westminster Abbey and its Music (1927), Byrd, A Critical Study (1936), English Cathedral Music (1941), and The Complete Works of William Byrd, 20 vols (1950). ¶¶

The present copy is in a handsome calf binding, which bears the pallet of the noted booksellers J. & E. Bumpus of Oxford Street, London, a business which had been founded in the late eighteenth century and incorporated in 1892 as John and Edward Bumpus Ltd. The business enjoyed great success in early twentieth century, when it was bookseller to the King and enjoyed the patronage of Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence, among others. Lawrence held the manager, J.G. Wilson, in high regard, writing that ‘Wilson, of Bumpus, is a real discovery, as a bookseller, isn’t he?’ (Letters from T.E. Shaw to Bruce Rogers (New York, 1933), p. [25]), and when Lawrence was concerned about finding sufficient subscribers to fund the publication of the ‘Cranwell’ or ‘Subscribers’ edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom ‘Wilson succeeded in obtaining a number of subscriptions from Bumpus clients, including one from the Royal Library at Windsor’ (J. Wilson, T.E. Lawrence (London, 1988), no. 244) – however, Lawrence would return the Royal Library’s cheque. It was later in the noted library of the historian of science and bibliophile R.E.W. Maddison, who was educated at King’s College, London where he was awarded a BSc in 1921 and a PhD in 1924. After working as an industrial chemist and a schoolmaster at Wellington College, Maddison devoted his professional energies to the history of science: he was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 1962-1964 and was appointed Librarian of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in 1965, holding the position until his retirement ten years later. ¶¶

The son of a bookseller, Maddison was ‘an ardent and perceptive book collector’ and ‘[f]or many years he acted as a consultant on scientific books to the old-established antiquarian bookseller, Edward G. Allen’ (R.E. Maddison, ‘Robert Edwin Witton Maddison (1901-1993)’, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 36 (1995), p. 457-458 at p. 457). Maddison’s library reflected the breadth of his interests not only in the history of science, but also literature, history, languages, and music; indeed, he was ‘a musician of outstanding ability. At the age of 16 he was the assistant organist at the Central Baptist Church, Bloomsbury. In 1918 he became the organist at l’Eglise Protestant de la Savoie, then in Shaftesbury venue’ (‘Robert Edwin Witton Maddison (1901-1993)’, p. 458). ¶¶

Cf. S.L. Hammond, The Madrigal: A Research and Information Guide, 264 (3rd ed.). ¶¶

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