Introduction Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach; 1. New light on the earliest medieval songbook Sam Barrett; 2. The careful cantor and the Carmina Cantabrigiensia Jeremy Llewellyn; 3. Across divides: Aquitaine's new song and London, British Library, Additional 36881 Rachel May Golden; 4. Wine, women, and song? Reconsidering the Carmina Burana Gundela Bobeth, translated by Henry Hope; 5. An English monastic miscellany: the Reading manuscript of Sumer is icumen in Helen Deeming; 6. Preserving and recycling: functional multiplicity and shifting priorities in the compilation and continued use of London, British Library, Egerton 274 Helen Deeming; 7. Minnesänger, music, miniatures: the Codex Manesse Henry Hope; 8. Writing, performance and devotion in the thirteenth-century motet: the 'La Clayette' manuscript Sean Curran; 9. A courtly compilation: the Douce Chansonnier Elizabeth Eva Leach; 10. Machaut's first single-author compilation Elizabeth Eva Leach; 11. Songs, scattered and gathered Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach.

This in-depth exploration of key manuscript sources reveals new information about medieval songs and sets them in their original contexts.