Publications

The RISM publications represent RISM’s activities that began in 1952 and continue to the present day. The focus of RISM’s current activities is its electronic database, which can be searched at no cost through two resources, the RISM Catalog and RISM Online. RISM’s library sigla can be searched through the Directory of RISM Library Sigla.

RISM Database

RISM’s over 1.4 million records can be searched through two different but complementary resources, the RISM Catalog and RISM Online. The musical sources that stand at the heart of the RISM project are music manuscripts, printed music, libretti, and treatises preserved in over 3,000 libraries, museums, archives, churches, schools, and private collections around the world. Our online tools incorporate records from earlier series (all of A/I, all of A/II, all of B/I, some of B/II and other B volumes; for details, see below), but also expand well beyond our early publications. The database grows monthly and reflects the work of our active RISM contributors worldwide.

RISM Catalog

The RISM Catalog can be accessed through the RISM homepage or from opac.rism.info. It is made possible through a partnership between the Bavarian State Library (Munich), the State Library of Berlin, and the RISM Editorial Center. The Bavarian State Library is responsible for the operation and technical implementation of the RISM Catalog.

RISM Online

RISM Online can be accessed through the RISM homepage or from rism.online. It is developed by the RISM Digital Center in Bern, Switzerland. Besides the core RISM pool of sources, RISM Online also enables users to search the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM).

Series A: Inventories of musical sources

All of Series A is available online through RISM’s electronic catalogs. Items within the scope of A/I and A/II are added directly to the RISM database. The alphanumeric A/I identification numbers (for example, T 444) are searchable online but are not being continued for new records in RISM.

A/I: Einzeldrucke vor 1800 (Individual Prints before 1800)

Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1971-2011. 9 volumes, 4 supplements, index, CD-ROM; available online since 2015.

Einzeldrucke vor 1800, 9 vols., 1971-1981.
Einzeldrucke vor 1800: Addenda et Corrigenda, 4 vols., 1986-1999.
Einzeldrucke vor 1800: Register der Verleger, Drucker und Stecher und Register der Orte zu den Bänden 1-9 und 11-14, 2003.
A/I: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. Datenbank auf CD-ROM, 2011.

For a supplement to A/I volume 9, see Haberkamp and Rösing (1981).

Series A/I was published in fourteen printed volumes between 1971 and 2003, and in one CD-ROM that incorporates all of the printed volumes in 2011. A/I is a bibliography of printed music published between 1500 and 1800 that contains works by a single composer. At around 100,000 entries, at the time of publication it was the most comprehensive resource available for printed music editions. A/I was added to the online RISM database in 2015.

A/II: Music Manuscripts after 1600

Musikhandschriften nach 1600
Sixteen editions total: 1-2 on microfiche (1984-1986); 3-16 on CD-ROM in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish (Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 1996-2008). Subscription database from EBSCO (2008-present; offered through NISC 2002-2008). Published in the online RISM database in 2010.

At the time of its conception, A/II was the most comprehensive guide available to music manuscripts created after 1600. The first edition (1984) contained ca. 19,000 entries and the sixteenth (2008) contained ca. 614,000 entries. In 2010, A/II was published as a freely available online catalog with over 700,000 entries. The nature of the A/II project has expanded over the years to include music manuscripts from before 1600 to the present day, and all music manuscripts are now part of the larger RISM database.

Series B: Bibliographies organized by topic

Publisher: Munich: G. Henle (unless otherwise noted)

RISM’s Series B covers specific categories of repertory. All of B/I and a portion of B/II are in the RISM electronic database, as are a few items from other B series (for details, see the specific B volumes below).

B/I and B/II: Printed collections of the 16th-18th centuries

All of B/I and about 25% of B/II are included in the RISM electronic database. While items within the scope of these series are added directly to the RISM database, the numbering scheme used in the books is not being continued.

B/I: François Lesure, Recueils imprimés, XVIe-XVIIe siècles (1960).
- Countries included: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, USSR, Yugoslavia.
- An index of composers in B/I, edited by Pietro Zappalà, is available as a PDF.
B/II: François Lesure, Recueils imprimés, XVIIIe siècle (1964)
- Countries included: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, USSR, Yugoslavia.
- For a supplement to B/II, see Lesure (1972).

Taken together, B/I and B/II describe about 4,500 printed collections (anthologies) published between 1501 and 1799.

B/III: The theory of music from the Carolingian Era up to c.1500

B/III is available as a searchable database through Lexicon musicum Latinum and in revised form through Musmed.fr.

B/III/1: Joseph Smits van Waesberghe with Peter Fischer and Christian Maas, The Theory of Music from the Carolingian Era up to 1400. Volume I: Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts, 1961.
- Countries included: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland.
B/III/2: Pieter Fischer, The Theory of Music from the Carolingian Era up to 1400. Volume II: Italy, 1968.
B/III/3: Michel Huglo and Christian Meyer, The Theory of Music. Manuscripts from the Carolingian Era up to c. 1500 in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1986.
B/III/4: Michel Huglo, Christian Meyer, and Nancy C. Phillips, The Theory of Music. Manuscripts from the Carolingian Era up to c. 1500 in Great Britain and in the United States of America: Descriptive Catalogue, 1992.
B/III/5: Christian Meyer, Elżbieta Witkowska-Zaremba, Karl Werner Gümpel, The Theory of Music: Manuscripts from the Carolingian Era up to c. 1500 in the Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal and Spain: Descriptive Catalogue, 1997.
B/III/6: Christian Meyer with Giuliano Di Bacco, Pia Ernstbrunner, Alexander Rausch, and Cesarino Ruini, The Theory of Music. Manuscripts from the Carolingian Era up to c. 1500: Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts: Addenda, Corrigenda, 2003.
- Countries included: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States.

The catalogs in the B/III series are focused on sources of medieval music theory. They offer a “description of all manuscripts in which are preserved Latin treatises—however small—dealing with the theory of music which was in use from the Carolingian era to 1400,” which was extended to 1500 in volume 3. “Moreover, it relates the anonymous treatises in one or other manuscript to those other manuscripts in which the same–generally unpublished–treatise is found…The Index supplies a survey of the manuscripts in which this theoretical tradition is preserved, by providing a list of the authors’ names and the incipits of the anonymous treatises.”

B/IV: Manuscripts of polyphonic music, 11th-16th centuries

Search B/IV in DIAMM (Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) and RISM Online.

B/IV/1: Gilbert Reaney, Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music. 11th-Early 14th Century, 1966.
- Description, bibliography and thematic incipits for all the known polyphonic manuscripts up to the beginning of the Ars Nova period.
- Countries included: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, USSR.
B/IV/2: Gilbert Reaney, Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music (c. 1320-1400). With supplement to B/IV/1. 1969.
- Description, bibliography and thematic incipits for all the known polyphonic manuscripts between c. 1320 and c. 1400, with the exception of Czech and Polish manuscripts and Italian Ars Nova sources.
- Countries included in main text: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United States.
- Countries included in supplement: Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia.
B/IV/1-2, suppl.: Andrew Wathey, Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music. Supplement to B/VI,1-2. The British Isles, 1100-1400, 1993.
- A supplement to Reaney’s catalogs that describes additional sources in Great Britain and Ireland.
B/IV/3: Kurt von Fischer with Max Lütolf, Handschriften mit mehrstimmiger Musik des 14., 15., und 16. Jahrhunderts. Mehrstimmige Musik in italienischen, polnischen und tschechischen Quellen des 14. Jahrhunderts. Mehrstimmige Stücke in Handschriften aller Länder aus der Zeit um 1400-1425/30. Organale Sätze im älteren Stil und mehrstimmige Stücke in Choralhandschriften des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts (Austria-France), 1972.
- Countries included: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland.
B/IV/4: Kurt von Fischer and Max Lütolf, Handschriften mit mehrstimmiger Musik des 14., 15., und 16. Jahrhunderts. Mehrstimmige Musik in italienischen, polnischen und tschechischen Quellen des 14. Jahrhunderts. Mehrstimmige Stücke in Handschriften aller Länder aus der Zeit um 1400-1425/30. Organale Sätze im älteren Stil und mehrstimmige Stücke in Choralhandschriften des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts (Great Britain-Yugoslavia), 1972.
- Countries included: Great Britain, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, United States, Yugoslavia.
B/IV/5: Nanie Bridgman, Manuscrits de musique polyphonique, XVe et XVIe siècles. Italie, 1991.
- Descriptions of polyphonic music manuscripts of the 15th and 16th centuries preserved in Italian libraries.

B/V: Manuscripts of tropes and sequences

Musicologie Médiévale maintains a list of B/V entries for which digitized music exists, as well as other sources not in B/V but within the scope of the volume.

B/V/1: Heinrich Husmann, Tropen- und Sequenzen Handschriften, 1964.
- Countries included: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican City.

B/VI: Printed writings about music

A very small number of sources from B/VI are in the RISM electronic database.

B/VI/1: François Lesure, Écrits imprimés concernant la musique (A-L), 1971.
B/VI/2: François Lesure, Écrits imprimés concernant la musique (M-Z), 1971.

B/VI attempts to bring together all literature concerning music 1474-1800, whether theoretical, historical, aesthetic, or technical. Countries included: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, USSR, Yugoslavia.

More than 2,000 publications from the Library of Congress (US-Wc) reported in these volumes are digitized and available online through the collection Books About Music Before 1800.

For a supplement to B/VI, see Lesure (1979).

B/VII: Manuscripts of lute and guitar tablatures

B/VII/1: Wolfgang Boetticher, Handschriftlich überlieferte Lauten- und Gitarrentabulaturen des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, 1978.

A descriptive catalog of all manuscripts handed down in lute and guitar tablature. Countries included: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, East Germany, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, USSR, West Germany, Yugoslavia.

For a supplement to B/VII, see Boetticher (1979) and Fabris (1982).

B/VIII: German hymns (DKL)

A very small number of sources from B/VIII are in the RISM electronic database.

B/VIII/1: Konrad Ameln, Markus Jenny, and Walter Lipphardt, Das deutsche Kirchenlied. Kritische Gesamtausgabe der Melodien. Band 1, Teil 1: Verzeichnis der Drucke von den Anfängen bis 1800. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1975.
B/VIII/2: Markus Jenny, Das deutsche Kirchenlied. Kritische Gesamtausgabe der Melodien. Band 1, Teil 2: Verzeichnis der Drucke. Register. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1980.

B/VIII is a catalog of traceable printed sources of German hymns, of all denominations, from the end of the 15th century until 1800 that contain at least one melody in musical notation. Also contains those editions of which no copy is known but whose former existence has been determined by previous bibliographies or research. Part 2 is an index arranged by title, names, places, publishers, and sigla.

Countries included: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, East Germany, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, USSR, West Germany, Yugoslavia.

B/IX: Hebrew sources

B/IX/1: Israel Adler, with the assistance of Lea Shalem, Hebrew notated manuscript sources up to circa 1840: A descriptive and thematic catalogue with a checklist of printed sources, 2 vol., 1989.
- Volume 1: Catalogue - Volume 2: Index
- All available Hebrew manuscript documents containing notated musical items which are datable up to circa 1840.
- Countries included: Denmark, France, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, United States, USSR, West Germany.
B/IX/2: Israel Adler, Hebrew writings concerning music in manuscripts and printed books from Geonic times up to 1800, 1975.
- A corpus of Hebrew writings concerning music (not only a catalog of these sources), arranged alphabetically by author.
- Austria, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United States, USSR, West Germany.

B/X: The theory of music in Arabic writings, c. 900 - 1900

B/X: Amnon Shiloah, The theory of music in Arabic writings (c. 900-1900). Descriptive catalog of manuscripts in libraries of Europe and the U.S.A, 1979.
- Countries included: Austria, Denmark, East Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United States, West Germany.
B/X/A: Amnon Shiloah, The theory of music in Arabic writings (c. 900-1900). Descriptive catalog of manuscripts in libraries of Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Russia, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and supplement to B/X, 2003.

Over 500 sources of Arabic music theory from its beginnings to the end of the 19th century.

B/XI: Ancient Greek music theory

B/XI: Thomas J. Mathiesen, Ancient Greek music theory: A catalogue raisonné of manuscripts, 1988.

Descriptions for nearly 300 codices, extending from the 11th through the 17th centuries. Countries included: Austria, Denmark, East Germany, Egypt, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, West Germany.

B/XII: Persian music theory

B/XII: Mohammed Taghi Massoudieh, Manuscrits persans concernant la musique, 1996.

Over 200 Persian musical manuscripts, encompassing virtually the total corpus thereof. Countries included: Afghanistan, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, India, Iran, Ireland, Netherlands, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkey, United States, Uzbekistan.

B/XIII: Hymnologica Slavica (Slavic hymns)

B/XIII/1: Jan Kouba, Marie Skalická, Gerhard Schuhmacher, Karol Hławiczka, Leon Witkowski, Teresa Krukowski, Gerhard Schuhmacher, Jan Raupp, Hymnologica Slavica: Hymnologica Bohemica, Slovaca (HBS), Polonica (HP), Sorabica (HS). Notendrucke des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, 2012.

Publications of hymn sources in the Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Sorbian languages containing musical notation, from the 16th to 18th centuries. Countries included: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States.

B/XIV: Manuscripts of the processional

B/XIV/1: Michel Huglo, Les Manuscrits du processionnal, vol. 1: Autriche à Espagne, 1999.
- Countries included: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Switzerland.
B/XIV/2: Michel Huglo, Les Manuscrits du processionnal, vol. 2: France à Afrique du Sud, 2004.
- Countries included: Croatia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.

Descriptions of over 1,100 notated processionals and over 150 manuscripts with processional chant.

B/XV: Polyphonic music in Ibero-American sources

B/XV: Cristina Urchueguía, Mehrstimmige Messen in Quellen aus Spanien, Portugal und Lateinamerika, ca. 1490-1630. Drucke, Handschriften und verlorene Quellen, 2005.

Printed music and manuscripts that form “a general inventory of polyphonic masses, mass sections and Requiem masses transmitted in sources from Spain, Portugal and Latin America between circa 1490 and 1630.”

Countries included (manuscripts): Colombia, France, Guatemala, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, United States.

B/XVI: Palm-leaf manuscripts

B/XVI: Tilman Seebass, Catalogue raisonné of the Balinese Palm-Leaf Manuscripts with Music Notation, 2015.

Palm-leaf manuscripts (lontars) from Bali. Music lontars are described in this catalog from collections in Indonesia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.

B/XVII: Trio Sonatas

B/XVII: Ludwig Finscher, Laurenz Lütteken, and Inga Mai Groote, eds., assisted by Cristina Urchueguía, Gabriela Freiburghaus, and Nicola Schneider: Die Triosonate: Catalogue Raisonné der gedruckten Quellen, 2016. 2 vols. plus database (database access information here).

Printed editions of trio sonatas, for two upper voices and basso continuo, by composers born before 1760.

B/XVIII: Manuscripts of notated sequences and proses

B/XVIII/1: Christian Meyer, Les Sources manuscrites des séquences et proses notées. IXe–XVIe siècles. Volume 1, France. Catalogue descriptif, 2022.

Manuscript sources for sequences and notated proses found in French libraries.

Series C: Directory of Music Research Libraries

Publisher: Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag

This series was based on Rita Benton, ed., Directory of Music Research Libraries (Iowa City: The University of Iowa, 1967-1975): Part I: Canada and the United States; Part II: Thirteen European Countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, East Germany, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, West Germany); Part III: Spain, France, Italy, Portugal.

Canada and the United States

C/I: Marian Kahn, Helmut Kallmann, Charles Lindahl, Directory of music research libraries. Volume 1: Canada and the United States, 2nd ed., 1983.

Sixteen European Countries

C/II: Elizabeth Davis, Directory of music research libraries. Volume 2: Sixteen European countries. 2nd ed., 2001.
- Countries included: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Switzerland.
C/III/1: Elizabeth Davis, Directory of music research libraries. Volume 3, 1: Sixteen European countries. 2nd ed., 2001.
- Countries included: France, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom.

Israel, Japan, and Oceania

C/IV: Cecil Hill, Katya Manor, James Siddons, Dorothy Freed, Directory of music research libraries. Volume 4: Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, 1979.
- For a supplement to C/IV, see Siddons (1986).

Eastern Europe

C/V: James B. Moldovan, Lilian Pruett, Directory of music research libraries. Volume 5: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, 1985.

Special volumes

Norbert Böker-Heil, Harald Heckmann, and Ilse Kindermann: Das Tenorlied: Mehrstimmige Lieder in deutschen Quellen, 1450-1580. Catalogus musicus 9. Kassel: Bärenreiter.
- Volume 1: Drucke, 1979.
- Volume 2: Handschriften, 1982.
- Volume 3: Register, 1986.
RISM-Bibliothekssigel: Gesamtverzeichnis (RISM library sigla: Complete index). Munich: Henle, 1998.
A searchable edition is available through the Directory of RISM Library Sigla on this website.