BOOK REVIEW: Karen Desmond, NOTES, Journal of the Music Library Association, June 2012.

 

The chapter "by Lisa Urkevich, is a fascinating study of the motet book associated with Anne Boleyn... Urkevich debunks the hypothesis, suggested by Edward Lowinsky, that the motet book was prepared in England in the 1530s for Anne Boleyn [Lowinsky, “A Music Book for Anne Boleyn,” in Florilegium historiale...1971]. Urkevich presents a compelling narrative (and in many ways more interesting than Lowinsky’s) that proposes, on paleographical and reportorial evidence, that the motet book was prepared in France ca. 1505–09, and was owned and prepared for a woman, possibly Marguerite d’Angouleme (sister of Francis I), or her mother, Louise of Savoy, and given to Anne, while she was in their service in France as a young girl. ...Urkevich’s dating of the manuscript is convincing. [On her suggested provenance]...I find the many connections intriguing...."