Mozart's Lost 1778 Notebook Discovered in Paris After 230 Years

A 44-page notebook authored by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1778, when he was 22 and teaching music in Paris, was found in the storerooms of France's National Library (Bibliothèque nationale de France) after being misclassified for over 230 years. In February 2026, musicologist François-Pierre Goy recognized the handwriting while examining anonymous scores and consulted his colleague Laurence Decobert. They compared it with existing Mozart works, and in April 2026, Armin Brinzing from the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg validated their discovery. The notebook features daily teaching exercises and seven compositions for flute and harp, likely for Mozart's pupil Marie-Louise-Philippine de Guînes and her father, the Duke of Guînes. The Duke's music collection was seized during the French Revolution in 1794 and remained hidden in national archives. On June 21, 2026, the pieces were performed for the first time at the BnF's Richelieu site during Paris' Fête de la Musique.