 The portrait on the frontispiece was based on John Closterman's portrait of Purcell, currently in the National Portrait Gallery.The first publication of a section of Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas" was the air "Ah!Belinda" in "Orpheus Britannicus", transposed up one step, from C to D.

Henry Hall, who had studied composition with Purcell under John Blow, wrote the dedicatory poems at the beginning of each volume, (1698 and 1702) and also wrote one for Blow's "Amphion Anglicus".