The young Mozart in the Philosophical Transactions

The year 1991 has been echoing with the sounds of celebrations marking the bicentenary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who died in 1791 at the age of 35. Mozart spent 15 months in England, mostly in London, arriving in April 1764 three months after his eighth birthday, and leaving in July 1765. The Royal Society was made aware of his prodigious talents as early as 1770, when his extraordinary performances as a musician were described by Daines Barrington in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions (60,55-64). As our tribute to Mozart, that paper is reprinted in reduced facsimile on the next three pages. Full-size versions are available in the Royal Society Library, not only in the various printings of the Philosophical Transactions but also in a book published in 1985, Mozart and the Royal Society .