News archive
Private collections and libraries
The following contribution presents the first part of a two-part news item meant as a first introduction to private collections and libraries. RISM currently (as of 13 May 2025) lists 9,122 library sigla. Of these, 637 refer to private collections or libraries, i.e. just over 7 % of all our...
15 May 2025 – New at RISM
Antonio Salieri 1825-2025
The following is a guest post from Elena Biggi Parodi (professor of music history and historiography at the Conservatorio “A. Boito” in Parma) May 7, 2025 marks the bicentenary of the death of Antonio Salieri, the last royal imperial Kapellmeister of the Habsburg court in Vienna. Thanks to his prestigious...
7 May 2025 – Events
Finding Unica in the RISM Database
The ability to trace the distribution of musical sources is one of the strengths of the RISM database. Music manuscripts are by their very nature unique, while any given printed edition potentially exists in multiple copies. Finding those printed editions that have only survived in a single known copy has...
2 May 2025 – New at RISM
How to Cite RISM
Many publications, whether online or in print, use their own style guides. However, citation styles frequently do not capture the nuances of historic music manuscripts and printed editions, making it difficult to identify the item with absolute clarity. RISM has recommendations for researchers and librarians when citing musical sources, including...
24 April 2025 – New at RISM
The Paul Hirsch Music Collection
The following was originally published on the Music Blog of the British Library (Creative Commons Attribution Licence): The Paul Hirsch Music Collection at the British Library is one of the most outstanding discrete collections of printed music held within the Library.[1] It is accompanied by the Paul Hirsch Papers, which...
17 April 2025 – Library collections
Woelfl-Haus Bonn: A Center for Music and Research
A catalog of Joseph Woelfl’s works, listing no fewer than 620 compositions, was first published in 2011 (RISM short title: HaiW - RISM Catalog | RISM Online). Its second edition will be made available online at the end of 2025, as well as in print the following year. In 2022,...
10 April 2025 – Library collections
New Research Guide on Robert Schumann
The following post originally appeared on the “In the Muse” blog from the Library of Congress. The Music Division is pleased to announce the publication of a new research guide outlining the Library’s rich primary and secondary sources concerning Robert Schumann. Schumann (1810–1856) was an influential composer, pianist, and music...
3 April 2025 – Library collections
EarlyMuse Report Available Online
Last May several representatives of the larger RISM community traveled to Wrocław to participate in a three-day meeting of the EarlyMuse network that seeks to establish “A new ecosystem of early music studies.” While we already published a brief account of this event, it may be of interest for many...
27 March 2025 – New at RISM
Annual Report 2024
At the time of delivering this report, RISM is in the middle of a two-year phase of transition. While in 2024–25 the Editorial Center in Frankfurt am Main is still financed under the auspices of the German Akademienprogramm, it is now operating on a reduced budget and must intensively be...
20 March 2025 – New publications
RISM Online Winter 2025 Update
The Winter 2025 Update for RISM Online brings with it a whole array of new features, improvements, and bug fixes. This update has been in development since August of 2024, and we hope you will find the changes useful. Cantus Database Integration RISM Online will now provide results from the...
13 March 2025 – RISM Digital Center
