The British Museum, Additional Manuscript 4918, provides an interesting insight into the sociology as well as the music of the Baroque period. This treatise was written by an unknown "music-lover," who was not a musician by profession. All that is definitely known about his identity are the initials A.D.V. that appear on the title page. The manuscript is dated 1702. In method and design this work represents the transitional character of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Because the author was not a professional musician, it is important to consider the sociological aspects which influenced the writing of a treatise of this sort. A study of the development of Baroque musical treatises indicates a direct parallel with the social and political temperament of the time.