About RISM Library Sigla

Since 1960, RISM has published catalogs with descriptions of musical source material from libraries and archives in many countries around the world. From the very beginning, institutions that hold musical sources were given an abbreviation, called a library siglum. The RISM library sigla make it possible to concisely name holding institutions – sometimes a large number of them – without having to cite very long institutional names. We do not require sources to be in the RISM database in order for a siglum to be created, and the materials do not necessarily have to be old.

RISM sigla are composed of a country abbreviation, a city abbreviation, and (usually) an institution abbreviation. The country abbreviations are taken from the Vehicle Registration Identification code. The city and institution identifiers are assigned by the RISM Editorial Center. It may be helpful to look at a few examples.

In I-Rc, I stands for Italy, R is for Rome, and c is for the Biblioteca Casanatense.

In US-PHu, US stands for the United States, PH is for Philadelphia, and u is for the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

Some institutions that are prominent in the city omit the institution abbreviation. In D-B, the D stands for Germany, and the B for Berlin. The institution is implied as the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (The Berlin State Library). All other institutions in Berlin will have an institution abbreviation.

Some large institutions may have more than one siglum assigned. F-Pn refers specifically to the Music Department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, while F-Pnm refers to the Manuscripts department at the same institution. We cannot always track where documents are actually held in an institution, so it is best to confirm with the institution directly.

Private collections may also have a siglum assigned. The last name of the owner or collector is generally used as the institution component in this case. In CDN-Mfisher, the CDN stands for Canada, the M for Montreal, and fisher for the private collection of Sidney T. Fisher. Since individuals and collections can move, the city name does not always correspond to the current location of the collection. In this case, the collection is now held in Toronto at the University of Toronto (CDN-Tu).

The library sigla are administered by the RISM Editorial Center in Frankfurt am Main. Each year, the RISM office receives several hundred inquiries for institutions that do not yet have a siglum. In such cases, RISM consults with the national group in question and assigns a new siglum.