This collection opens with a brief letter of dedication from Leyding to his friend Johann Jakob Dusch followed by a preface. The table of contents lists the songs in the order in which they appear in this volume. All of the songs are written in two staves - the top with soprano clef; the bottom, with bass clef. The first stanza of each poem is manually underlaid below the top staff. The full text of the poem is printed either below the music or on the following page. The vocal line use either single or double voices.

Copy of the first of three volumes of "Storia della musica" (Music History) containing eleven chapters and three dissertations. The text describes various topics related to music history including music classification, early music in biblical descriptions, music theories, singing and harmonies, church music, and musical notations.