MSS 984–988) are a collection of five partbooks compiled by Robert Dow in Oxford around 1581–88.
At the end is an instrumental La gamba and a canon, both a 3 and apparently copied from Vincenzo Ruffo's book printed in Milan in 1564.
Robert Dow was a trained calligrapher and the books are unusually easy to read among manuscripts of the Tudor period.
54 were added by several other people at a later time (19th century), in sequences that do not coincide perfectly.
The collection was acquired by Henry Aldrich and donated to Christ Church, Oxford as part of his bequest to the college following his death in 1710.