Research Guides: Music Theory: RISM

RISM : Répertoire International des Sources Musicales

RISM : Répertoire International des Sources Musicales is an international inventory of musical sources. Founded in 1952, RISM is a joint project sponsored by IAML (International Association of Music Libraries) and IMS (International Musicological Society). RISM strives for comprehensive documentation of extant primary musical sources worldwide: music manuscripts, printed music, writings on music theory, and libretti that are housed in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools, and private collections.

RISM establishes what exists and where it can be found.

RISM Series Contents

Fine Arts Library: REF ML113 .I6
RISM online catalog

Series A/I : Individual Prints before 1800 (Einzeldrucke vor 1800)

Printed music published between 1500 and 1800 that holds the work of a single composer

Series A/II : Music Manuscripts after 1600 (Musikhandschriften nach 1600)

Music manuscripts created after 1600

Series B

B/I : Recueils imprimés, XVI3e-XVIIe siècles (Printed collections of the 16th & 17th centuries)
B/II : Recueils imprimés, XVIIIe siècle (Printed Collections of the 18th century)
B/III : The Theory of Music from the Carolingian Era up to c.1500
B/IV : Manuscripts of Polyphonnic Music, 11th-16th Centuries
B/V : Manuscripts of Tropes and Sequences
B/VI : Printed Writings about Music
B/VII : Manuscripts of Lute and Guitar Tablatures
B/VIII : German Hymns
B/IX : Hebrew Sources
B/X : The Theory of Music in Arabic Writings, c.900-1900
B/XI : Ancient Greek Music Theory
B/XII : Persian Music Theory
B/XIII : Hymnologica Slavica (Slavic hymns)
B/XIV : Manuscripts of the Processional
B/XV : Polyphonic Music in Ibero-American Sources
B/XVI : Palm-Leaf Manuscripts
B/XVII : Trio Sonatas