The Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) - International Inventory of Musical Sources - is an international, non-profit organization that aims to comprehensively document extant musical sources worldwide: manuscripts, printed music editions, writings on music theory, and libretti that are found in libraries, archives, churches, schools, and private collections. RISM’s over 1.5 million records can be searched at no cost through the RISM Catalog and RISM Online. RISM was founded in Paris in 1952 and is the largest and only global organization that documents written musical sources. RISM records what exists and where it can be found.

RISM Cataloging Guidelines

RISM's cataloging guidelines are now available at guidelines.rism.info.

Library Sigla

Search RISM’s abbreviations for libraries, archives and collections with historical music holdings

RISM for Librarians

Librarians, see here what RISM has to offer you

Muscat

All about Muscat, RISM’s specialized program for cataloging musical sources

RISM’s work is also supported by the Kulturfonds of VG Musikedition

News

Card indexes of music prints from the RISM offices in Munich and Dresden digitised

The two German offices of the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales in Dresden and Munich hold extensive card indexes from the first decades of their activities. The card index of series A/I (“Music prints before 1800”) documents the data collected on music prints owned by institutions in Germany during the...

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RISM for Musicians

Although at the time of its founding RISM was designed for libraries and scholars, there are of course many cases where our database can be a particularly valuable resource for musicians. Those who simply want to play from the latest commercial edition of a work will not find what they...

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Conference of the RISM Working Group Germany "Music Prints and Digital Transformation"

The RISM Working Group Germany, in collaboration with the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB), is hosting an interdisciplinary conference on 13 and 14 November 2025. Under the title “Music Prints and Digital Transformation: Perspectives on Documentation, Representation and Interconnectivity”, experts from the fields of musicology, book studies, information...

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Ignaz Joseph Pleyel’s Violone Concerto Identified

We have received the following from Darija Andelic-Andzakovic (musicologist and double bass player). Johannes Mathias Sperger (Feldsberg/Valtice, 1750 – Ludwigslust, 1812) is widely known as the composer of 18 concertos for double bass. Sperger’s concertos survive in autograph scores as part of his estate housed at the Landesbibliothek Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Günther...

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Private Collections and Libraries - Part 2

In this second part of our introduction to private collections and libraries, we would like to focus on collections that have a long history of continuity, or happen to be relatively young but have already found a safe haven in an institution. In addition, we will also discuss the relocation...

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All the news

RISM Cataloging Guidelines

RISM's cataloging guidelines are now available at guidelines.rism.info.

Library Sigla

Search RISM’s abbreviations for libraries, archives and collections with historical music holdings

RISM for Librarians

Librarians, see here what RISM has to offer you

Muscat

All about Muscat, RISM’s specialized program for cataloging musical sources

RISM’s work is also supported by the Kulturfonds of VG Musikedition