The ‘lost’ account book of the Academy of Vocal (later Ancient) Music, 1726–1731): a postscript to my article on the history of the Academy in volume 51 (2020).

Abstract

AbstractThe account book of the London Academy of Vocal (later Ancient) Music (1726-31) forms the first part of a manuscript acquired by the library of the Paris Conservatoire in 1858. It went missing when, a hundred years later, it was transferred to the Bibliothèque Nationale and the second part catalogued as MS F. Rés. 1507. It did not surface again until the spring of 2020, too late to be included in the author’s long article on the history, repertoire and surviving programmes of this important eighteenth-century institution in Research Chronicle no. 51. As a postscript to that article, it is transcribed here prefaced by a short introductory essay together with such explanatory notes as the document requires.