This bibliography offers descriptions of almost 200 issues of secular voice music published in England, 1703-1726, including works by Giovanni Bononcini, Henry Purcell, John Weldon, Attilio Ariosti and Richard Leveridge. 2296 song first lines are listed and indexed. The books described represent the first extended effort to issue entirely commercial printed versions of musical stage works and they are also the first song books to be printed by engraving on a systematic basis. In addition to clarifying the bibliographic history of the books through examination of 856 copies (92% of those identified), the bibliography tests and extends the standard concepts of bibliographical description. Several new descriptive features are introduced. There are over 200 illustrations of title-pages, frontispieces and musical engraving styles. By permitting access to material that is not currently widely available in print, the bibliography will be of assistance to musicians, music and theatre historians, and literary scholars, as well as to librarians and bibliographers.

This volume is a detailed bibliographical description of 180 collections of opera and other secular songs, with a 36 page introduction and full indexes. Hunter lists the first lines of all the songs included in each volume and indexes them so as to allow identification and dating of single songs of the period. Nine other indexes cover composers, singers, literary or dramatic works, short titles, printers and publishers, engravers, passe-partout title-pages, single or double sided volumes, and libraries.

David Hunter's listing of all operas and songbooks published in England between the years 1703 and 1726 is an important research tool ... the volume is easy to use, with information presented in a manner that facilitates easy reading and cross-referencing.