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The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek continues the indexing, digitization and setting up of an online presentation of the historical archive of the music publishing house B. Schott’s Söhne. The German Research Foundation (DFG) supports this second project phase with further funding in the amount of around 1.2 million Euro. The archive of the music publishing house seated in Mainz is considered unique among the preserved archives of publishing houses on account of its volume and comprehensiveness. It was entered in the German register of archives of national value (Länderverzeichnis national wertvoller Archive) in 2004.

"Favourite waltz of the fair coffee sisters", published in 1817 | © BSB

After the approval of further funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the years 2022 to 2025, the successful project "Cataloguing, digitization and online presentation of the historical archive of the music publishing house Schott", which has been funded by the DFG already since 2017, can be continued. The objective is cataloguing the business correspondence from the company archive, the production archive with music manuscripts and printed sheet music, as well as cataloguing the "old Schott archive" in its entirety, which contains predominantly unpublished musical works. The digitization of the music manuscripts and printed sheet music from the production archive is continued. The extensive contents of the Schott archive and their complex structure can thus be made visible, searchable and academically evaluable in the international online union catalogue of historical music manuscripts and sheet music prints (RISM), the online catalogue of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and the portal "Schott-Archiv", which is operated by the Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage.
Schott-Archiv digital

Dr. Klaus Ceynowa, Director General of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: "For the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the acquisition of the historical archive of the Schott publishing house constitutes the largest music-related addition of source materials since the time of secularisation (1803). The consistent cataloguing and digitization of these sources is all the more important for their musicological exploration. We can take a big step further in this direction thanks to the continued funding by the German Research Foundation."

Forming part of a consortium of eight research institutions, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek acquired the historical archive of the publishing house "B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz" (around 1770 – 1945) in 2014. The sources range from the written correspondence to and from the Schott publishing house to the music manuscripts themselves and up to the first prints and reprints of the works. In addition, there are 41 digitized books of prints and engravings from the Schott business archive, which evidence the edition history of each musical work published in Mainz.

Press release for download (PDF, 162 KB)

Contact persons
Jürgen Diet
Department of Music
Phone +49 89 28638-2768
juergen.diet@bsb-muenchen.de

Peter Schnitzlein
Press and Public Relations
Phone +49 89 28638-2429
presse@bsb-muenchen.de

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The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek continues the Schott project: renewed funding by the German Research Foundation