The Garland Composer Resource Manuals (under the general
editorship of Guy Marco and the imprint of Routledge) have
established themselves as often the definitive accumulations of
factual, biographical, bibliographical and where possible and/or
appropriate of discographical information about a dozen or so
composers. Lawrence Earp's Guillaume de Machaut: A Guide to
Research is decidedly in that mold. It represents in a single
volume as near as definitive a body of information, data, facts,
chronologies, background, manuscript and provenance details,
biography, scholarly research and relevant analysis as is to be
had anywhere. That's just as well for the substance of the book
is well over 600 pages in length. On top of that there are three
indexes: General (14 pages), of manuscripts (4 pages), and of
works (28 pages). Near Earp's concise and informative scene-
setting preface come four pages of meticulously cross-referenced
abbreviations, and a list of the 25 tables in the book. Casually
to skim Guillaume de Mac