A census of printed musical literature in Tuscan libraries - XVth to XIXth centuries

Abstract

In the years 1995-1998 the Tuscan Region - Cultural Assets and Libraries Department - financed a three-year project for cataloguing the texts of printed musical literature from 1470 to 1899 that are preserved in the libraries of Tuscany. This initiative was set up concurrently with the activity of LESMU-Lessico Musicale Italiano (Italian Music Lexicon). The paper presents the results of the census of printed books in Italian, Latin and other European languages on musical theory, aesthetics and criticism (treatises, epistolary biographies, pamphlets and also dedications, prefaces to scores, etc.) in the possession of the principal Florentine libraries (Conservatorio L.Cherubini, Laurenziana, Marucelliana, Nazionale, Riccardiana-Moreniana). Attention is then drawn to new findings and to the possibility of integrating, correcting and completing information extracted from current repertories.