Blurring the Lines: 'Elizabeth Rogers hir Virginall Book' in Context

Evidence in Elizabeth Rogers hir virginal book suggests that Elizabeth Rogers herself received training in composition, transposition, and ornamentation—practices not heretofore associated with young women in England during the mid-seventeenth century. The manuscript also represents a trend towards blurring the line between professional and amateur sources: it is one of the earliest manuscripts in England that challenges modern assumptions about what constitutes an amateur's manuscript and what a professional's, and, by extension, what repertory belongs in a woman's manuscript. Elizabeth Rogers contains a diverse repertory that includes up-to-date foreign pieces, but not modern English music, characteristics that further mark it as atypical. Copied in the 1650s, the volume demonstrates a move towards a more current, competitive market in which, by the end of the century, amateur sources can no longer be easily distinguished from professional manuscripts.