About the Schatzkammer presentation

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is exhibiting five of the most distinguished manuscripts from its collections on the occasion of the 2023 Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference.

The historical music holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek date back to the music collections of the Court Library founded in 1558 and of the Bavarian Court Chapel, which was systematically expanded under Wilhelm IV and Ludwig Senfl from 1523 onwards. The Wittelsbach Dukes purposefully collected musical resources for their Court Library, independently of the performance material required by the Court Chapel. In the course of secularisation in the 19th century, valuable holdings from Bavarian monasteries were brought to the Library in Munich. Some of them date back to the very commencement of the written documentation of music.

The manuscripts displayed in the Schatzkammer (treasure room) represent the wide range of unique music resources from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The famous Carmina Burana represent medieval secular music; the Codex St. Emmeram early mensural music; the Buxheim Organ Book, a very extensive source for keyboard music of the 15th century; the Renaissance choir book for Count Palatine Ottheinrich; and the Spanish manuscript Cancionero de la Sablonara from the early 17th century.