London, Royal College of Music, MS 1070

Anne Boleyn's Book Facsimile Edition

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The Anne Boleyn's Book is justly considered one of the most beautiful books of  Renaissance music in France. Beautifully written, it was made in 1540 and contains 42 sacred motets by some of Europe’s most famous composers. 

As the title suggests, at one point the book was owned by Anne Boleyn's, a controversial figure of English history. Furthermore, it would appear that  the manuscript contains the authentic signature of Anne Boleyn.

An inscription in an early sixteenth-century English hand reads M[ist]res A Bolleyene Nowe thus. She is referred to as “mistress” indicating that the inscription was certainly made before she became queen in 1533.

Anne may have acquired it while serving as a maid of honour in the household of Margaret of Austria, with whom she moved to live at the French court when Margaret married Louis XII

Part of the collection of the Royal College of Music since its foundation in 1883, the manuscript has recently been disassembled, restored, and rebound, allowing far-reaching new research to be carried out.

We have 1 facsimile edition of the manuscript "Anne Boleyn's Book": The Anne Boleyn Music Book facsimile edition, published by DIAMM, 2017

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The Anne Boleyn Music Book

London: DIAMM, 2017

  • Commentary (English) by Schmidt, Thomas; Skinner, David; Airaksinen-Monier, Katja
  • Limited Edition: not limited
  • Full-size color reproduction of the entire original document, Anne Boleyn's Book: the facsimile attempts to replicate the look-and-feel and physical features of the original document; pages are trimmed according to the original format; the binding might not be consistent with the current document binding.

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