Exhibit at the Frankfurt University Library: 350th Anniversary of Johann Andreas Herbst's Death
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Johann Andreas Herbst (1588–1666) and His Music Library: A Testimonial to Music Playing and the Art of Printing Music
Motivated by the ceremonial coronations for Holy Roman Emperor that took place in Frankfurt am Main in 1612 for Matthias and in 1619 for Ferdinand II, the city appointed its first music director in 1623. Johann Andreas Herbst (1588-1666) was selected, who was from Nuremberg and had been in service at the landgrave courts in Butzbach and Darmstadt. He was allowed to employ municipal musicians and build up a music library, which is preserved today in the university library. The Herbst collection consists mainly of printed Italian and German partbooks dating from 1580 to 1690 with works by Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, Samuel Scheidt, Heinrich Schütz, Johannes Eccard, and many more (120 editions with around 300 works by 250 different composers).
An exhibit highlighting this collection has been put together by musicology students at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt and led by Dr. Britta Schulmeyer with support from Dr. Ann Kersting-Meuleman (University Library). It can be seen from 28 January - 4 March 2016 at the Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg, Zentralbibliothek, floor 3.
The partbooks have been cataloged in RISM. To find Herbst’s collection in RISM, go to the RISM online catalog and do an Advanced Search. Enter D-F in the field Library siglum and enter Mus W in the field Shelfmark. This is the collection that Herbst began and was continued after his tenure.
Exploring the Herbst collection can yield some treasures, such as the only complete copy of Parnassia militia, concertuum unius, duarum, trium et quatuor vocum by Vinko Jelić (Straßburg, 1622; RISM A/I: J 520). A digitized copy is available from the DiZbi.HAZU (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Digital Library).
Enjoy this performance of “Probasti Domine” from Vinko Jelić’s collection (start on p. 25 if you’re following along with the digitized parts):
Image: Sebastian Furck, Johann Andreas Herbst, copper plate engraving, Frankfurt am Main, 1635. Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, S36_G04115.
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