The Curious History of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute's Novus thesaurus musicus (1568): A Case Study and Cautionary Tale

Abstract: The Riemenschneider Bach Institute at Baldwin Wallace University owns all six partbooks of the Novus thesaurus musicus , a monumental motet anthology printed in Venice in 1568. Although at first glance the books appear to be in original sixteenth-century bindings, closer examination reveals that the books come from two different original sets and were later rebound in an attempt to fool users into thinking it is an original complete set. Using methodologies from the disciplines of descriptive bibliography and the history of the book, and drawing upon evidence from other surviving copies of the print, this article unravels the mysteries of the Institute's partbooks, tracing their circuitous journey from sixteenth-century Venice to twentieth-century Ohio. Along the way, it points out traps and pitfalls that could easily result in misleading interpretations of the books' history and use, while offering valuable lessons to those interested in the materiality of early modern musical sources.