[Collection of medieval musical
treaties, ca. 1470]
Case MS 54.1
|
| La harpe de melodie [Collection of medieval musical treaties, ca. 1470] Case MS 54.1 |
The music library of Count Pio Resse of Florence, one of the first collections acquired for the Newberry, set the stage for building rich collections in music and music theory. While the premier music collections at the Newberry excel for the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, strong holdings persist throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
The music collections include about 60,000 books, 80,000 scores, and 100,000 sheet music titles. Special strengths include music theory, treatises, and history, music manuscripts, opera scores and libretti, music periodicals, early American sheet music, hymnody and psalmody, liturgical works, songsters, early methods books, and manuscript collections for the history of music in Chicago. Strong collections are also held in critical editions, reference and bibliography, and biography.
For an essay on the Library's music collections, see Donald W. Krummel's description published in volume 16 (1969) of Fontes artis musicae.
See also: The Newberry Consort