Like all 10 volumes in this series  Historic Dance Volume III: 1600-1650 is an A4 book by Dr John Gardiner-Garden with nearly 740 pages of research, discussion and analysis, with hundreds of illustrations, musical scores, dance reconstructions, source extracts, transcriptions and translations, and with each volume divided into five parts. 

Part 1 (Dance context) explores the social, political and geographic contexts in which dance and the institution of the ball was evolving. 

Part 2 (Dance forms) examines the nature and evolution of the period’s main types of dance. 

Part 3 (Dance Technicalities) has in-depth sections on ‘Style’, ‘Etiquette’, ‘Honours’, ‘Holds’, ‘Formations’, ‘Figures’ and ‘Steps’. 

Part 5 (Dancing Masters) is devoted to developments in dance teaching, notation and publication, and offers an annotated bibliography of primary sources. 

Part 4 (Dances in Detail) offers reconstructions, music and source comparisons for the following dances of the period:

Alta Carretta; Alta Mendoza; Ballo nuovo fatto da sei Cavalieri; Bassa Savella; La Battaglia; Il Bianco Fiore; Bizzaria d’Amore; Bobbing Joe (1); Boon Companion; Brando detta Alta Regina; Brando di Cales; Branles—opening suite (2); La Caccia d’Amore (2); Canario (2); La Catena d’Amore; Celeste Giglio; The Chirping of the Nightingale (1); Contrapasso Nuovo; Courant (2); Cuckolds all a row (1); Donna Leggiadra; Forza d’Amore; The Friar and the Nun; Galliard (3); Graies Inne Maske (1); Greenwood (1); The Gypsies (1); A Health to Betty; Hearts-Ease (1); Hunsdon House; Jack Pudding; Jog On (1); Ladye Spiller / Lady Spellor; Lansdowne no.4; Laura Suave; Lightly Love; A Mayden Fayre / Once I lov’d a Maiden Fayre; The Milking Payle / Merry Merry Milk Milkmaids (1); Moll Peatley (1); Nido d’Amore; La Nizzarda; An Old Man is a bed full of Bones; Il Pastor Leggiadro; Picking of Sticks; Rose is white and rose is red; St John / Dull Sir John; Selva Amorosa; So Ben Mi Chi Ha Buon Tempo; Spagnoletta (2); Lo Spagnoletto; Spring Garden; The Tassel Jump; Ten Pound Lass (1); Torneo Amoroso; Trenchmore; Villanicco.