Appendix: List of Extant European Dance Sources

[opening paragraph] Information about dancing in Europe before the middle of the fifteenth century can be gleaned from sources such as eyewitness accounts, letters, memoirs, literary references, iconography, and music with dance titles. None of these, however, provide us with enough detail to be able to reconstruct a dance. Beginning at about the mid-fifteenth century, a new category appears: notated choreographies. This may be further subdivided into dance treatises (today often referred to as "dance manuals") with step descriptions, choreographies, and often also with accompanying music; collections of choreographies without step descriptions and usually also without music; and isolated choreographic notes, possibly aides-mémoire of dance students. Most of the dances described in the Renaissance sources were social dances, although they could no doubt be adapted and elaborated for theatrical purposes.