The patent granted to William Byrd and Thomas Tallis in 1575 to print both music books, except Psalm books, and ruled music paper draws attention to the close relationship between printed and manuscript production of music books. When printed and manuscript books for the period are considered together it becomes clear that their history is intertwined and that, for both categories, contents, layout and method of production were determined by the social contexts of their composition and their audience. Music writing with any speed and accuracy was a skill which took practice to acquire. The work of the London clergyman, Thomas Myriell, dating from the early seventeenth century, contains examples of presentation and working manuscripts. Music in Scotland, as also in smaller centres throughout Britain, was largely dependent on London for the supply of printed music books. By the end of the seventeenth century London was still the centre of music publishing.

The advent of printing heralded changes that have rightly been described as revolutionary. The invention of printing, its subsequent course, its effects and the ways in which it was exploited, raise issues that have little to do with the more immediate circumstances of invention. The application of metallurgical, chemical, calligraphic and engraving skills to the production of a printed page. Documentary sources, and close examination of surviving copies of books, have revealed a great deal of the background and financial and practical details of the beginnings of printing at Mainz in the 1450s. In general, printing was slow to take root in university towns; and where it did, as at Paris and Cologne, the earliest printers either showed little interest in local teaching needs, or moved on to other themes once a patron's initial enthusiasm waned. The potential of printing technology, linked to the exploitation of paper, was rapidly recognised for its religious, scholarly and social value.