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.

News

Joint Workshop of the Four "R-Projects" in Budapest

On 17–18 September 2026, Budapest was home to a workshop offering students of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music a chance to learn more about the four so-called ‘R-projects’: RISM, RILM, RIdIM, and RIPM. Each of the ‘Rs’ were set up several decades ago under the auspices of the International...

continue ...

Dealer's Stamps and Musical Scores

Dealers’ stamps (also called sellers’ stamps) have long allowed librarians, archivists, musicologists, and other researchers to trace the curation, consumption, and dissemination of musical scores. Some stamps provide detailed information, offering the name of the dealer, the location of the shop, and even the date of the sale. Others are...

continue ...

Digitizing the Music Library of Emperor Charles VI

The following text is based on Marc Strümper’s blog post “Digitalisierung der Musikbibliothek Kaiser Karls VI.” published on 13 November 2024 on the website of the Austrian National Library. The same collection was already mentioned by Christa Traunsteiner in a text published on the RISM website about two years ago:...

continue ...

The Orpharion and its music

Today we would like to draw your attention to the orpharion, a plucked string instrument from the time of the Renaissance. Its name – which in Michael Praetorius’s Syntagma Musicum (Vol. 2, 1619, Plate XVII) appears as “Orpheoreon” – refers to two singers from Greek mythology: Orpheus, who enchanted both...

continue ...

Happy Anniversary, IAML!

The following text appeared in the April–June 2026 issue of Fontes Artis Musicae, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML). Just like in 2001, for a Fontes special issue dedicated to IAML’s 50th anniversary, the head of the RISM Editorial Center...

continue ...