Vespers at Hampton Court

[Triforium]

Good thing there is no balkanisation around Lambeth.

[Vox Humana]

Let's not forget that the Liber Precum Publicarum, for use in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and schools such as Winchester and Eton, was published in 1560.

The problem here, as I understand it, is that there is no evidence that the Liber Precum Publicarum actually saw much use and Tallis's canticles survive uniquely in a set of partbooks which are thought to have been largely copied from old Chapel Royal sources (although I suspect there is more to be said about this).

If it's Latin it's presumably before the Prayer Book, but if it really is a pair with the Nunc it's not written fro Vespers, is it?

For what it's worth, my money is on them dating from Queen Mary's reign, which is post Prayer Book. For all that Lambe and Fayrfax apparently wrote paired settings of the canticles, we don't know whether they were thematically linked. It's not impossible, but I think it has to remain a very open question, especially with the pre-Taverner generation. After the Edwardine years it's another matter entirely and I find the notion of a paired, Latin Mag and Nunc altogether more feasible. It's worth remembering that, generally, Vespers and Compline were performed consecutively and even in H8's reign were together known colloquially as Evensong. That's a pre-Reformation term that has survived in common use despite the Prayer Book rebranding them as Evening Prayer.