It retains its original calf binding with gold tooling, and the initials A.C. are stamped on both back and front covers.
The verso of the title page bears a table of note values and four lines of verse: Fouer moodes in musicke you shall find to bee But two you only use which heare you see Devided from the sembreefe to the quaver Which you with ease may larne if you endevour Each of the following 33 pages bears eight sets of six-line ruled staves on which are fifty short pieces of music, written in at least two hands.
The remaining pages are blank apart from the last, on the verso of which is written: This Book was my Grandmothers Ann Daughter and Coheiresse of Henry Cromwell Esqr.
Her Coheiresse (above) was her sister Elizabeth Cromwell (born 1616) who with Anne may have had a hand in the writing of the manuscript.
Only nine pieces are attributed, of which six are to Simon Ives (1600-1662),[3] one to John Ward, one to Bulstrode Whitelocke and one to (possibly) Thomas Holmes († 1638).