The National Library of Spain and its Music Department collaborated with RISM to disseminate its musical heritage

María Teresa Delgado-Sánchez

Thursday, March 26, 2026

Over the past 30 years, the Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE) collaborated closely with the RISM project. Through Nieves Iglesias and José Carlos Gosálvez the National Library participated in the team that translated RISM’s cataloging guidelines into Spanish – alongside other notable experts such as José Vicente, González Valle and Antonio Ezquerro from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Institución Milá y Fontanals de Investigación en Humanidades) in Barcelona, as well as Joana Crespí from the Library of Catalonia.

The National Library of Spain first contributed to the RISM project by reporting some copies that belonged to the early A/I series, “Individual prints before 1800.” As a more recent step of our collaboration, in the years 2024 and 2025 we added more than 2,500 bibliographic records of music manuscripts to the international database directly through Muscat, RISM’s special cataloging program. RISM’s A/II series concerns “Music manuscripts after 1600,” and today in fact admits even 21st-century materials, whereas our BNE project covered historical sources produced before 1830. The inclusion of these precious manuscripts means a significant enrichment for the RISM database, while at the same time it ensures much greater visibility for the collection of the National Library of Spain on an international level. As a special advantage, the sources now searchable in RISM have also been digitized, therefore you can explore them from your own computer, wherever you are in the world.

At the same time, the National Library of Spain – represented by its Departamento de Música y Audiovisuales – has recently become an integral part of RISM’s international structure. The latter has traditionally been based on a network of more than 30 working groups representing their respective countries, and the Spanish working group now involves two centers: the Institución Milá y Fontanals de Investigación en Humanidades and – as a new host institution – the National Library of Spain. We are delighted to assume this important new role, and look forward to actively contributing to the larger RISM community. It is our hope in particular that our assistance can help to increase the number of Spanish-language sources in RISM.

Image: Juan de Vado (ca. 1625–1691), Libro de misas de facistor (ca. 1667), Manuscript copy, Biblioteca Nacional de España, shelfmark M/1323, f. 4 Available online at Biblioteca Nacional de España, (RISM ID no. 1001313237 – RISM Catalog | RISM Online).

Catégorie: Collections de bibliothèques