16th and 17th century tuning

[Richard Smith]

Is anyone aware of any research into how the tuning of rings 
of bells evolved during the 16th and 17th centuries?  As I 
understand it, until the middle of the 16th century, the 
major scale was basically unknown, and church music was 
based around the eight Gregorian modes.  Is it known whether 
it was typical for rings of bells to be tuned to these modes 
too?  (I appreciate that rings of more than five were quite 
exceptional then, and without a complete octave, some modes 
are ambiguous.)

By the mid 17th century, I'm guessing that the major scale 
had been largely adopted by bellfounders, but, again, how 
much evidence for this?  For example, the 1681 twelve at 
York Minster: was this definitely in a major key?  I would 
be interested in anything further anyone knows about how and 
when the transition occured.

It has occured to me -- though this is probably nothing new 
to this list -- that this transition must have occured at 
about the same time that change ringing suddenly took off in 
the early 17th century.  Now this may be utter coincidence, 
and I'm aware of other developements that may have fueled 
this (notably three-quarter wheels), but I do wonder whether 
this may be amongst the factors that lead to the 
developement of change ringing.

Cheers,
Richard