What a treat to find the original manuscript of something centuries old at the tap of a button. I’ve been learning an old French drinking song – Chanson à Boire – and discovered today that it was published in 1615 by Gabriel Bataille. A little more digging down the rabbit hole of the internet and up popped the original publication that the good folk at the Bibliothèque National de France (French National Library) have digitised. The hundreds of pages of his Airs de différents auteurs mis en tablature de luth are there for one to read anywhere in the world. It is quite amazing how clear the printing is and how little has changed in music notation over 400 years.

page of 17th century music manuscript
Chanson à Boire, Gabriel Bataille 1615, which begins, ‘He who wishes to avoid a migraine always drinks good quality.’ And goes on with a warning that ‘water does nothing but rots the lungs.‘