Renaissance banjo

Tuning the high D-string to E and capoing at the fifth fret gives you the exact tuning of the Renaissance guitar: GCEA, though we have the added advantage of the fifth string (g) which we can use for some cool "melodic banjo" type licks, of which there's several on page 2.

A bransle 

(pronounced something like /braunl/) 

was a dance - think of our word "brawl" to which it's related - and as such, there seems to be a  clave of sorts.  For instance here's what seems to be going on rhythmically in the first section:

From measure 9 on however, we have four sections of six bars each, which I map out this way:

As the word bransle referred to a dance, not a fight, one might imagine something on the lively side 

though the tempo marking is admittedly a guess. 

And this is one of those dance-based pieces that you can imagine actually having been played for dancers, though I doubt the guitar of the era could be heard from too far away. And at a party? Forget it. Still, while you want to play with dynamics and expression, I think it's a good idea to play this as if you're also trying to "feed your dance floor."