Working with Early Modern (Music) Prints

5 How to work with early prints - a step-by-step checklist

Imagine you’re in a library or archive and the librarian hands you an original music print from 1556. Of course, you’re super excited. But what to do now? The following step-by-step checklist might help you.

  • Is it a choirbook or a set of partbooks? Choirbooks usually come as one huge volume, while partbooks are multiple volumes. (Attention!: Some libraries collect a complete set of partbooks in one binder’s volume, so you might sometimes just get one physical book. If you’re insecure, always look on the title pages – printers usually indicate the name of the voice.)
  • Which kind of musical notation is used (neumes/monophonic chorale notation, tablature or mensural notation)?
  • What is its format? This might already be a hint to the context of use of the music book.
  • Are there any library marks or similar labels (stickers, stamps…) on the title, the cover or the pages that are not part of the actual print?
  • Does the book give the impression of having been heavily used, or does it seem ‘new’? Think about what this can tell you about the history of the book!
  • Now look at the title page: What information does it give to you? (Composer, printer, year, place of printing, contents, perhaps a printing privilege or already an indication of the dedication…)
  • Open the music pages: How is the appearance of the music engraving? Is it rather neat or does it look sloppy?
  • Finally, it’s time to deal with the dedication and ultimately bringing together all the information in order to be able to make basic statements about the print.

Working with early prints is not hard and can be lots of fun – you should definitely try it! 😊