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Print and manuscript sources of Renaissance music (1400–1600)

General resources for music prints

  • Boorman, Stanley, Eleanor Selfridge-Field, and Donald W. Krummel. "Printing and publishing of music." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, 2001.
    • Provides an overview of music printing and publishing practices
    • Includes an extensive bibliography
  • Bernstein, Jane A. Print Culture and Music in Sixteenth-Century Venice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. ML3790 B47 2001.
    • A central book for understanding the origins and development of music printing.
  • Microfilms of Renaissance Prints
    • List of microfilms available at McGill for specific Renaissance prints
    • Organized by year of publication and item code based on RISM
    • McGill print edition of the RISM catalogue:ML113 I6 ser AI 
  • RISM: Online Catalogue
    • Better for prints than manuscripts
    • Includes inventories and other information on sources
    • Does not yet include everything found in RISM's printed volumes
      • Contains all of series A/I, A/II, and years 1500-1550 and 1601-1610 of B/I.
      • A/I: Single-composer prints before 1800
      • B/I and B/II Printed anthologies of the 16th-18th centuries (see below)
    • See RISM under General resources for music manuscripts and General resources for music prints of this guide for more details

RISM printed volumes

  • RISM A/1: Schlager, Karlheinz, ed. Einzeldrucke vor 1800 (Individual prints before 1800). 15 vols. Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1971-2011.
  • RISM B/1: Lesure, François, ed. Recueils imprimés, XVIe-XVIIe siècles (Printed collections from the 16th through the 18th century). Munich-Duisburg: G. Henle, 1960.  
    • ML113 I6 ser.B I
    • 4,500 printed collections (anthologies of music by more than one composer)
    • Online catalogue contains the years 1500–1550 and 1601–1610
    • More years are currently being added online
    • Available online at IMSLP
  • Marvin Duchow Music Library: Online Scores and Treatises (use VPN off-campus, for best connection results use Firefox as your browser)
    • Digitized scores and treatises from the Marvin Duchow Music Library's collection 
    • See under Early Music Prints: Palestrina’s Missarum Liber secundus (1567) and Willaert’s Musica Nova (1559)

Location and contacts

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Contact:
Marvin Duchow Music Library
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Subjects: Music

Resource key

  • McGill users only
  • Open access resource
  • Free resource
  • In-library use
  • Catalogue record

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