The music manuscripts of the State and City Library Augsburg up to the middle of the 17th century: Online cataloguing, digitization and watermark thermography

FundingGerman Research Foundation (DFG)
Project partnerLand Archive of Baden-Württemberg (LABW)
Project term01/11/2020 – 31/10/2022
Contact addressContact persons:
Dr. Veronika Giglberger
veronika.giglberger@bsb-muenchen.de
Bernhard Lutz
bernhard.lutz@bsb-muenchen.de
Dr. Karl-Georg Pfändtner
pfaendtner@sustb-augsburg.de
Coloured Augsburg city coat of arms on parchment (D-As Tonk Schl 200a) | © BSB
Coloured Augsburg city coat of arms on parchment (D-As Tonk Schl 200a) | © BSB


As of November 2020, around 80 music manuscripts from the early times of music notation up to the middle of the 17th century from the holdings of the State and City Library Augsburg are catalogued and digitized at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Running for the duration of two years, a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) will permit the first comprehensive musicological documentation and free-of-charge provision of the sources on the Internet. In addition to online cataloguing and producing high-quality scans of the sources in their entirety, the digitization also encompasses the documentation of the watermarks contained in the paper by means of state-of-the-art thermography technology.

The music manuscripts of the State and City Library Augsburg founded in the year 1537 assume an important position among the Renaissance holdings of the city of the Fugger dynasty. They come from monasteries and colleges in Augsburg for the most part. The music materials from the former Benedictine imperial college St. Ulrich and Afra with its important collection of large-format choir books merit special mention. Among these books, there are also the Magnificat compositions by Orlando di Lasso, which are richly adorned with book illumination.
The cultural importance of Augsburg and of its citizens’ musical life during the times of Emperor Maximilian I is mirrored by the so-called "Augsburger Liederbuch" (songbook), which contains a compilation of motets, chansons and songs of the early 16th century. The volume bears the exlibris of the patrician family Herwart and conveys partly unique pieces by composers of great renown and importance at the time, such as Ludwig Senfl, Heinrich Isaac, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin Desprez, Alexander Agricola and others.

The project's results will be made available i.a. via the database of the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) and the Watermark Information System (WZIS).

Wasserzeichen-Informationssystem (WZIS)
Répertoire International des Sources Musicales

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