• Export bar is to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the manuscript
• Worth £214,200, the extensive and important manuscript can help us understand how music was shared in the 17th century

An early 17th century manuscript of Italian and French lute music is at risk of leaving the country unless a UK buyer can be found.

Worth over £200,000, the manuscript is described as one of the most extensive and important sources of lute music of the early 17th century, containing 89 unidentified pieces that had never been seen before.

Instrumental music was hugely popular during the period with many in the middle class keen to enjoy musical performances. Creating anthologies was a valuable way to preserve and share music by composers who didn’t have enough pieces to publish volumes of their own.

The rich and cosmopolitan anthology will contribute to people’s understanding of how cultures flourished across national boundaries, despite the hardships and restrictions of the Thirty Years War.

Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said:

Lute music is a vital part of our artistic heritage and there is much this anthology can teach us.

This fascinating manuscript could be described as a 17th century streaming platform thanks to its ability to allow music by brilliant composers to be shared across Europe.

I hope a buyer comes forward to save the piece for the nation.

The Minister’s decision follows the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (the Committee). The committee agreed the manuscript was vital to understanding how music spread throughout Europe during the 17th century, as well as how it was produced and replicated.

Committee Member Peter Barber said:

Little research has recently been done into this large and handsomely bound manuscript album of early lute music. Fascinating and evocative, it includes work, among many others, both by the English composer John Dowland and by a brother of Galileo. The volume promises to shed much light on the circulation of music, particularly lute music, the role of music-making, and the dance, in western Europe while the Thirty Years War was raging in the early and mid-seventeenth century. One third of the music, amounting to 89 pieces, is not to be found anywhere else. Thoroughly pan-European, the volume was assembled by a German, mainly written out in the French style and contains music from many lands.

The volume also has research value because of its association with the musical instrument-maker Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940). Dolmetsch was the leading figure associated with the early twentieth-century revival of the performance of early music using instruments of the time. The album formed part of the collection that he assembled and his annotations suggest that he particularly valued it. Dolmetsch lived most of his life in, and was particularly associated with, England, where the largest remaining part of his music collection is still to be found. The album’s research value might therefore be more fully exploited, if it were to remain in the United Kingdom.

The Committee made its recommendation on the grounds the manuscript’s departure from the UK would be a misfortune because it is of outstanding significance for the study of 17th century lute music.

The decision on the export licence application for the manuscript will be deferred until 13 June 2022 inclusive. At the end of the first deferral period owners will have a consideration period of 15 business days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the manuscript at the recommended price of £214,200. The second deferral period will commence following the signing of an Option Agreement and will last for three months.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the manuscript should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.

2. Details of the manuscript are as follows: A manuscript (ca. 15 x 18 cm) of 285 leaves containing some 320 lute pieces in French lute tablature. The contents were likely compiled and inscribed by or for its owner in the first half of the 17th century in South Germany / Austria.
   The paper is generally in good condition, with no tears, and only minimal staining. The watermarks have been studied to a certain extent and a crown surmounting a double-headed eagle over a shield enclosing the letters MB[?] can be recognised.
   It is suggested that the binding is the work of the Federnelkenmeister (‘carnation master’) from Cologne, who was active up to 1619. Two clasps with later straps have been added later.

3. Provenance: c.1905 at a Zurichbookseller’s shop (in his 1935 work Par la révolution, la paix ,Romain Rolland describes seeing the volume there thirty years earlier); Max Kalbeck (1850-1921), acquired 1895 from Antiquariat L. Liepmannssohn, Berlin: see RISM B VII, and also J. Wolf, Handbuch der Notationskunde (1919), vol.2, p.109; thereafter owned by Arnold Dolmetsch(1858-1940) and thence by descent.

4. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by the Arts Council, which advises the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria.

5. Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. Its strategic vision in Let’s Create is that, by 2030, England should be a country in which the creativity of everyone is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. ACE invests public money from the government and the National Lottery to support the sector and deliver the vision.

6. Following the Covid-19 crisis , ACE developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90 per cent coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. It is also one of the bodies administering the government’s unprecedented £1.96 billion Culture Recovery Fund.

The largest ever research and development budget, worth £39.8 billion, has been allocated across the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s partner organisations, the government has confirmed today.

Driving forward the government’s ambitions as a science superpower, the Spending Review committed record levels of investment in the UK’s world-leading research base over the next 3 years, with R&D spending set to increase by £5 billion to £20 billion per annum by 2024-2025 – a 33% increase in spending over the current parliament by 2024-2025.

The allocations will allow the government to deliver on the ambitions set out in the Innovation Strategy, with these investments supporting our commitment to ensure total R&D spending reaches 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

These investments will contribute to the new cross-government approach on research and development, helping to deliver strategic advantage in science and technology, work alongside industry to leverage private investment, and deliver prosperity, security and resilience this century.

In turn, the investment will support priorities that are key to the UK’s prosperity, from tackling climate change to levelling up opportunities across the country, enabling investment in new technologies from clean tech to AI, where the UK has a strong competitive advantage globally and industrial strength at home.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said:

For too long, R&D spending in the UK has trailed behind our neighbours – and in this country, science and business have existed in separate spheres. I am adamant that this must change. Now is the moment to unleash British science, technology and innovation to rise to the challenges of the 21st century.

My department’s £39.8 billion R&D budget – the largest ever R&D budget committed so far – will be deployed and specifically targeted to strengthen Britain’s comparative advantages, supporting the best ideas to become the best commercial innovations, and securing the UK’s position as a science superpower.

This includes full funding for EU programmes, for which £6.8 billion has been allocated to support the UK’s association with Horizon Europe, Euratom Research & Training, and Fusion for Energy. If the UK is unable to associate to Horizon Europe, the funding allocated to Horizon association will go to UK government R&D programmes, including those to support new international partnerships.

A significant proportion of the budget has been allocated to UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), which will receive over £25 billion across the next 3 years, reaching over £8.8 billion in 2024-2025, its highest ever level and over £1 billion more than in 2021-2022. This will include an increase in funding for core Innovate UK programmes by 66% to £1.1 billion in 2024-2025, helping connect companies to the capital, skills and connections they need to innovate and grow.

The UK Space Agency’s budget will also grow to over £600 million by 2024-2025, recognising the fact that our world-leading space sector adds nearly £16 billion to UK GDP while underpinning complementary parts of the economy including finance, logistics and agriculture. This is equivalent to a real terms increase of 14%.

These allocations follow the government’s recent commitments made in the Levelling Up White Paper to increase public investment in R&D outside the greater South East by at least a third over the Spending Review period, and for these regions to receive at least 55% of BEIS domestic R&D budget by 2024-2025.

The government’s ambitious R&D investment plans, combined with our generous R&D tax credits programme, will give businesses the confidence to invest in the field following the pandemic, with research finding that every £1 of public expenditure in R&D eventually leverages an average of £2 of additional private investment.

Read the full partner organisation allocations publication.

• Modern software to reduce delays, increase collaboration and identify criminal trends
• Five-year £8 million contract, with new system to be operational in early 2023
• Aligns with 16 UK police forces and the Home Office

The Service Police – comprising the Royal Air Force Police, Royal Military Police and Royal Navy Police – in partnership with the Service Prosecuting Authority and Military Court Service, have signed a five-year, £8 million agreement with NEC Software Solutions for their Connect product to deliver an integrated IT system.

This move is in addition to the Armed Forces Act, which is delivering a series of improvements to the Service Justice System (SJS), ensuring personnel have a clear, fair and effective route to justice wherever they are operating.

Configuration and deployment of the new software will commence immediately, with operational capability expected in early 2023.

The upgrade will:

• Create a single digital data source for the Service Police, Service Prosecution and Military Courts, improving information flows from the start of an investigation through to prosecution, hearing and sentencing.
• Significantly reduce workload burdens, reduce delays in data transfer and mitigate against errors, confusion, or ambiguity, adopting an ‘input once and use multiple times’ approach.
• Provide real-time statistical and data analytics of criminal patterns, trends, themes and identification of areas of concern, both inside and outside the military.
• Enable creation of dedicated witness and victim management processes, to further improve the standard of care and service to victims.

Minister for Defence People and Veterans, Leo Docherty said:

We have one of the fairest and most stringent justice systems in the world and it’s important we equip those in the Service Justice System with the latest technology and digital tools to streamline investigations and better support victims.

By upgrading the IT platform throughout the military justice network, we will align better with civilian forces to collectively tackle criminal activity.

The new computer system will cover policing investigation management, Service Police intelligence, case preparation, prosecution, court management and custody.

This will create single data source, enhance electronic ways of working, enabling collaboration across not just the SJS but also alongside external policing and law enforcement agencies This will happen through secure network interfacing by providing connectivity to Home Office applications such as the Police National Computer.

Chief of Defence People, Lieutenant General Swift said:

This is a positive step forward to a more collaborative, smoother and more compassionate justice system for our Armed Forces people, Service families and veterans around the world.

Having a long-term contract for a modern digital system will also compliment the wider reforms taking place across the Service Justice System.

NEC Software Solutions Connect system is currently used by 16 UK police forces and demonstrates how policing is adapting to a digital environment, streamlining of processes and efficiencies of service. It offers future proofing for growth and development.

The new system will satisfy a significant number of the recommendations put to different elements of the SJS from recent reviews in relation to greater collaboration, improving recording accuracy and reducing delays.

The software is replacing the extant Service Police REDCAP, Coppers and Tribase Intel systems.

Background

NEC Connect manages Victim Code of Practice and Witness Charter in line with statutory guidance. It will improve witness care through a number of new ways, including:

• Adding a Victim to NEC Connect will automatically identify where they are repeat victim of crime, ensuring the officer in charge manages their safeguarding appropriately
• Overdue updates being automatically escalated to a supervisory unit
• Victim vulnerability mandated at the point of first recording
• Sensitive information held in NEC Connect can be restricted to protect the vulnerable