Brussels and Tholouze

Burgundian Basse Danses appear in a number of sources. The earliest of these are the manuscript in Bibliotheque Royale (Ms 9085), usually called "The Brussels Manuscript"; and the book by Michel Tholouze. These two appeared in the period 1480 - 1500, although dances from these works appeared in the flyleaf "Ballet de la Royne" in 1445, indicating that Basse Dances had been danced in Burgundy for approximately as long as they had been danced in Italy.

Moderne and Copeland

The next two important sources are the book from the press of Moderne, and Robert Copeland's "The manner of dauncynge bace daunces". Although the latter was published in England, it is a translation of a French text (unknown), and lists dances in the Burgundian style.

There is a difference between the early two sources and the later two sources in the naming of the "reprise" or "demarche" step. The early works call the step a demarche, while the later two books call it a reprise. Moderne’s dance descriptions also vary significantly from those in Brussels, Tholouze, and Copeland. This suggests that the English Copeland manuscript is in fact closer in style to the two earlier Burgundian manuscripts than Moderne is.