Databases and External Resources

The following curated lists focus on those databases most helpful for research on or related to the music anthologies of the 16th and 17th centuries held in the Music Division's collections. Using the resources below, you can find music manuscripts, correspondence, production information on specific composers, musical works, scholarly articles from journals and books, reviews of articles and books, articles from trade magazines, newspaper articles, conference papers, and more.

Visit the E-resources Online Catalog for a comprehensive list of the databases to which the Library subscribes and offers on-site access.

External Resources
Subscription Databases

These external resources are freely available for research.

RISM External This link opens in a new window

RISM is an international collective undertaking with the aim of comprehensively documenting surviving music sources anywhere in the world. RISM keeps track of what is in existence and where it is kept. In many countries, independent national working groups in libraries and archives catalog historical music sources: music prints, music manuscripts and libretti as well as writings about music (of a theoretical nature). The results are coordinated, summarised and published by RISM. The online-catalog offered here contains around 700,000 references almost exclusively to music manuscripts. These records pass on to posterity the works of some 25,000 composers. The sources are preserved in the libraries and archives of 32 countries. This online-catalog contains data on Series A/II: Music manuscripts after 1600, which was previously published as a CD-ROM or an Internet databank. RISMs databank is the most comprehensive accessible documentation in the area of music manuscripts hitherto, and it will grow constantly through regular updates.

The British Library Music Collections External
This website includes digitized materials held by the British Library.
Catalogue des airs publiés dans le Mercure galant (1678-1700) External
Catalogue of tunes published in the Mercure Galant (1678-1700)
Center for French Baroque Music External
The CMBV (Centre de musique baroque de Versailles) was set up in 1987 by Vincent Berthier de Lioncourt and Philippe Beaussant to spearhead a revival of French Baroque music. The Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs pools the resources to showcase and promote this precious 17th and 18th century French musical legacy. One outstanding example of their offerings is the database "The Air de Cour printed in France (1602-1660)," at https://philidor.cmbv.fr/Publications/Catalogues-de-genre/Catalogue-de-l-air-de-cour-en-France-1602-ca-1660/Introduction
DIAMM: (the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) External
DIAMM attempts to include photograph and archive images of all fragments of English polyphonic music written before 1550; all complete sources of English polyphonic music before 1500, and as many as practically possible 1500-1550; all fragments of European polyphony 1300-1450; and as many complete manuscripts of European polphony 1300-1450, and beyond as is possible and practicable.
EMO: Early Music Online (University of London, Royal Holloway) External
These digitised volumes contain approximately 10,000 musical compositions, which have been individually indexed. The volumes mainly consist of partbooks of vocal polyphony, but also include some early printed tablatures for keyboard or plucked string instruments. They include music printed in Italy, Germany, France and England.
English Short Title Catalog (ESTC) External
The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) lists over 480,000 items published between 1473 and 1800, mainly, but not exclusively, in English, published mainly in the British Isles and North America, and from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries
Gallica (BnF) External
This website is for the digital collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
International museum and library of music of Bologna External
This link is to the GASPARI database at the International Museum and Library of Music in Bologna, which includes extensive metadata for music scores and resources from the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Music Publishing House of Estienne Roger and Michel-Charles Le Cène External
This website includes a collection of early catalogues of the publishing house and catalogues of other publishers, collection of documents in relation to the publishing house, and a complete descriptive catalogue of the editions of the music publishing house of Estienne Roger, including editions by other publishers sold be the Roger publishing house.
Printed Sacred Music in Europe 1500–1800 External
The scope of the present database is to cover all sacred music printed in Europe, 1500-1800. It comprises the data collected in the 'Bibliografia della musica sacra pubblicata in Italia fra il 1500 e il 1725 circa' (Venice, Fondazione Cini). The editions now preserved with Catholic music published in Switzerland up to 1800, and the editions with comparable repertoire circulated in the Alpine region, are inserted in the database in the course of a research project started in 2010 by the Institute of Musicology of Fribourg University and the Swiss RISM Office, with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts (VD 16) External
The directory of prints from the 16th century published in the German-speaking area (VD 16) is a retrospective national bibliography for printed works published between 1501 and 1600. It includes approx. 106,000 titles with proof of ownership from currently 333 libraries.
Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts (VD 17) External
The directory of prints from the 17th century published in the German-speaking area (VD 17) is a retrospective national bibliography for the period from 1601 to 1700. It includes all German-language prints and all works printed and published in the historical German-speaking area, regardless of their language.

The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

Early English Books Online External This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. EEBO ranges from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War. Subjects covered include: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, politics and government, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science.
The following EEBO collections are available: Early English Books I (Pollard and Redgrave, STC I), 1473-1640 Early English Books II (Wing, STC II), 1641-1700 Thomason Tracts,1640-1661 and Early English Books Tract Supplement. The EEBO search interface will cross search all four collections.
Oxford Music Online External This link opens in a new window
Oxford Music Online includes The Oxford Companion to Music (2002) The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Second Edition, Revised (2006) and Grove Music Online, which comprises The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Edition (2001). The database contains articles on music history, music theory and practice, musical terminology, instruments and their history, and the music of various locations ranging from continents to units as small as a city. Also contains biographies of composers, performers and writers on music, as well as historic and current figures associated with the art and business of music. Extensive work lists and bibliographies conclude most articles. Other features include links to sound examples via partnerships with Classical Music Library and DRAM, links to the RILM database of music bibliography, and biographical linking to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature External This link opens in a new window
International bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines from 5,200 journals in 202 languages. Citations are drawn from articles, books, conference proceedings, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, festchriften, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings and videos, and reviews. Covers from Western and Eastern classical to pop, folk, and jazz with original language titles and title translations in English.

Anthologies of Musical Works from the 15th-17th Centuries in the Library of Congress Music Division

Performing Arts: Ask a Librarian

Databases and External Resources