The Eton Choirbook, a rare and lovely survival of early Tudor choral music, does not, sadly, contain any Christmas carols. Carols were around in the years 1500 to 1504, when the choirbook was being made. They have their roots in the early middle ages, when Christmas music was either liturgical (the sequences of hymns assigned... Continue Reading →
"All boys should have a competent knowledge of Mathematics before leaving school." Edward Hawtrey, Head Master of Eton, 1851 Eton College Library and Archive were recently approached by the Reading Euclid research project (based at the University of Oxford) for material relating to the role of the mathematician Euclid in the curriculum at Eton between... Continue Reading →
That is, before Elizabeth I, Christmas 1599. In trying to find a College Library item related in some way to Christmas, which is not Victorian or later, I discovered Eton’s copy of The pleasant comedie of Old Fortunatus by the playwright and pamphleteer Thomas Dekker (c. 1572-1632). Details about Dekker’s life are somewhat sketchy and... Continue Reading →
