The book includes music of Duncan Burnett’s own period, and work dating from the late 16th century.

The contents are as follows:

(i) Twenty-three complete pieces for virginal (preceded by some incomplete pieces), by Duncan Burnett, William Kinloch, Edward Johnson, William Byrd and anonymous composers, with an anonymous setting of 'Susanna un jour' by Orlando di Lasso (folios 67-72 verso), and a setting by Kinloch of 'The Battle of Pavia' (folios 22-40 verso) (folio 1);

(ii) Two reports in four parts, one by 'Mr Blak' based on 'When shall my sorrowful sighing slack' by Thomas Tallis with the tune to the fiftieth psalm in the tenor, and the other called 'Mounseer Mingo' based on di Lasso's 'Un jour vis' (folio 138);

(iii) Forty-seven three- and four-part settings of psalm tunes by Andro Kemp, discussed by Kenneth Elliott in ‘Transactions of the Scottish Ecclesiological Society’, volume xv, part II (1961), pages 18-32 (folio 140 verso);

(iv) Miscellaneous pieces including two settings of the ground by Francis Tregian (found also in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book), the chanson 'Content desir' by Claude de Sermisy, and 'Ane Italian Sang' (folio 163).