music printing in leipzig during the thirty years' war

Music Printing in Leipzig during the Thirty Years' WarAuthor(s): Stephen RoseSource: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Dec., 2004), pp. 323-349Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4487359 .

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MUSIC PRINTING IN LEIPZIG DURING THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR

BY STEPHEN ROSE

At the start of the seventeenth century, ambitious musicians in Lutheran lands were keen to have their music printed and published. To be in print was a way of making a public reputation, which could lead to

professional mobility and advancement. Thus Johann Hermann Schein, who was Thomaskantor in Leipzig between 1616 and 1630, declared in 1617 that he would publish books of his sacred and secular music in al-

ternation, and in the next decade he brought out twelve such collections. Michael Praetorius, composer at the Wolfenbilttel court, was even more productive, seeing twenty-two large books into print between 1605 and 1619. Numerous pieces were also printed in pamphlets for wed-

dings, funerals, and other ceremonies: Schein had over a hundred such occasional pamphlets to his name.

Despite the evident significance of German music printers in the period, they have been little studied, in contrast to the attention that has been lavished on Italian firms of the sixteenth century. One reason for such neglect is that there were no large printers that could form the focus for research, in the way that Gardano and Scotto have for studies of Italian music printing; the only German firm of comparable size was

perhaps the Gerlach-Kauffmann dynasty in Nuremberg.1 On the whole, German music was printed by nonspecialist firms who produced a handful of music editions among numerous other titles. The music trade was

decentralized, with most firms catering to local composers and buyers; it is hence best studied by examining all the printers in a particular town or region.

The present article focuses on the music printers of Leipzig between 1590 and 1660. This period was dominated by the Thirty Years' War

(1618-48), which significantly disrupted the city's economic and cultural life. Yet despite such vicissitudes, throughout the first half of the seventeenth century Leipzig produced about a tenth of all printed music in

Stephen Rose is Research Fellow in Music at Magdalene College, Cambridge. From 2005, he holds a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research examines the

place of music and musicians in German society of the seventeenth century. 1. Susan Jackson, "Berg and Neuber: Music Printers in Sixteenth-Century Nuremberg" (Ph.D. diss.,

City University of New York, 1998); and Jackson, "Who is Katherine? The Women of the Berg &

Neuber-Gerlach-Kauffmann Printing Dynasty," Yearbook of the Alamire Foundation 2 (1995): 451-63.

323



324 NOTES, December 2004

German-speaking lands.2 Although the city had only about 15,000 inhab- itants, it was renowned as a center for both trade and learning. It stood at the junction of trade routes from northwest Europe, from eastern

Europe, and from southern Germany and Italy; it was particularly im-

portant as a trading gateway to the expanding markets of Bohemia, Pomerania, Prussia, and Silesia. Three trade fairs were held each year (at New Year, shortly after Easter, and at Michaelmas), and by the end of the seventeenth century these fairs had grown to be bigger even than those at Frankfurt am Main. Alongside this mercantile activity, the university at- tracted students from Protestant territories across northern Europe and trained the elite that would become the future administrators, educators, lawyers, and pastors of Saxony. The combination of trading and learned communities gave Leipzig a rich musical life; its local musicians included

leading composers of the day, notably Johann Hermann Schein and

Johann Rosenmilller, and there were also strong links with musicians at Dresden such as Heinrich Schfitz.3

Leipzig was a major center of the book trade. Booksellers met at the trade fairs to exchange stock and settle accounts, and by the 1590s there were formal book fairs running at both Easter and Michaelmas. Some of the dealers were Leipzig residents, such as Henning Grosse and his fam-

ily, while many others visited from towns across the German-speaking lands. The city was the pivot in the distribution network of books to central and eastern Europe, and the local authorities tolerated Protestant titles that tended to be censored at the other German book fair of Frankfurt am Main. From Michaelmas 1594 each book fair was accompa- nied by a catalog listing the stock that could be bought or ordered there. The catalogs included many books from Leipzig, titles from other German cities such as Nuremberg and Frankfurt am Main, and numerous foreign books. Music merited its own section in the catalogs, includ-

ing imports from Antwerp and partbook sets from other regions of

Germany.4

2. Barbara Wiermann, "Die Entwicklung vocal-instrumentalen Komponierens im protestantischen Deutschland bis zur Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts," 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss., Albert-Ludwigs-Universitait Freiburg, 2002), 1:52-53.

3. Stephen Rose, "Music, Print, and Authority in Leipzig during the Thirty Years' War," 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 2001), 1:15-43.

4. On the book-fair catalogs, see Rudolf Blum, "Vor- und Frfihgeschichte der nationalen Allge- meinbibliographie," Archivfiir Geschichte des Buchwesens 2 (1959): 258-64. Most of the music in the book- fair catalogs is listed in Karl Albert G6hler, Verzeichnis der in den Frankfurter und Leipziger Messkatalogen der

Jahre 1564 bis 1759 angezeigten Musikalien (Leipzig: In Kommission bei C. F. Kahnt nachf., 1902; reprint, Hilversum: Frits Knuf, 1965). G6hler's commentary, Die Messkataloge im Dienste der musikalischen

Geschichtsforschung (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hirtel, 1901; reprint, Hilversum: Frits Knuf, 1965), is less useful, being preoccupied with the comprehensiveness of the catalogs.



Music Printing in Leipzig During the Thirty Years' War 325

The music printed in Leipzig, however, was aimed at a more provincial market than that represented at the fairs. Most of it was by local composers such as Erhard Bodenschatz, Sethus Calvisius, Johann Hermann Schein, or Tobias Michael, and some of it was specific to the musical preferences or liturgical requirements of the area. Although the books by Schein and Calvisius were vigorously advertised at the book fairs, their main market consisted of the churches and schools of Saxony and Thuringia; few

copies were owned by institutions as far afield as Liineburg or Lilbeck. Hymnals such as Schein's Cantional (1627) often indicated on their title

pages that they were for use in the jurisdiction of electoral Saxony. As for the hundreds of occasional pamphlets that were printed in Leipzig, almost all were for private distribution among friends and colleagues.

There was no such thing in Leipzig as a printer who specialized solely in music, as in the manner of Gardano in Venice. Most of the city's numerous printers produced some music at some stage in their working lives, if only perhaps hymnals or pamphlets. This arrangement seems to reflect the role of music in Lutheran society: pervasive but often at a rel-

atively basic level of expertise, without the circles of connoisseurs such as collected madrigal books in Italy. It is relatively uninformative to list the

output and biography of the Leipzig printers individually.5 Instead, the

present article asks wider questions to elucidate the place of music in the Lutheran book trade. How much music was issued, and did printers specialize in particular genres? Can archival and typographic evidence re- veal the equipment and expertise possessed by different firms? And how much did printed music cost, and in what print runs were music editions issued?

GENRES OF PRINTED MUSIC

Printed music from Leipzig in the period 1590-1660 can be divided into four categories: partbook collections, hymnals, treatises, and occasional pamphlets (those produced for a specific occasion such as a bap- tism, wedding, or funeral). This taxonomy is of my own devising but is based on criteria that seventeenth-century musicians would have recog- nized, such as the format, musical contents, and commercial basis of a book. A description of the four categories is a useful way to introduce the output of the Leipzig printers.

5. For such an approach, see Adam Adrio, "Die Drucker und Verleger der musikalischen Werke Johann Hermann Scheins," in Musik und Verlag: Karl Votterle zum 65. Geburtstag am 12. April 1968, ed. Richard Baum and Wolfgang Rehm, 128-35 (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1968).




Partbook Collections

Partbook is the format for which there is a book for each performing part. It was used for polyphony and hence was the specialist format for music; partbook collections were usually advertised under the heading of "Libri musici" in the book-fair catalogs. A typical partbook collection from Leipzig contained about fifteen to twenty-five pieces, although some books were larger. The contents might be motets, as in the weighty anthologies edited by Erhard Bodenschatz, Florilegium selectissimarum cantionum (1603, 2d ed. 1621) and Florilegium portense (1618). Volumes of secular music also appeared, including partsongs such as Balthasar Fritsch's Newe deutsche Gesdnge (1608) and the three books of Schein's Musica boscareccia (1621, 1626, 1628), as well as collections of instrumental dances by Schein, Valerius Otto, Georg Engelmann, Samuel Michael, andJohann Rosenmilller.

The Lutheran market for partbook collections included a range of am- ateur and professional musicians. Many schools were obliged to supply the music at the neighboring church, and hence had to invest in printed sets of motets for the pupils to sing. Sometimes church music was also undertaken by a Kantorei, which consisted of a mix of boys, teachers, professional musicians, and amateurs. The emphasis on music in schools created a class of musically competent and musically literate amateurs; many members of this class also cultivated secular repertories in their homes or at convivial gatherings. Printed music was preferred to manu-

script, partly because there was widespread demand from churches and schools, and partly because many of the performers were amateurs who lacked the prestige or professional stature to acquire scribal copies.

Hymnbooks

Hymnals and devotional songbooks constituted the most widespread category of printed music and the one with the biggest market. Almost

every printer and publisher produced at least one or two such titles. These books, bringing congregational and devotional song to the peo- ple, were sometimes comprehensible to those without a musical educa- tion and often had close links with nonmusical books. In the book-fair

catalogs and the inventories of many libraries of the time, they were usu-

ally listed among other religious or devotional books. Some hymnals were official repositories of the congregational songs

for the church year. This repertory had ossified after the first few decades of the Reformation, partly because the church authorities tried to impose conformity on chorale singing and discouraged the use of newly written hymns. Even as late as 1624 the Saxon authorities forbade congregations




from singing anything other than thirty-two chorales dating from the sixteenth century.6 Hence the hymnals produced in Leipzig during the 1620s often contained a similar repertory to those of fifty years earlier, and always laid great emphasis on chorales by Martin Luther. In Schein's Cantional (1627), for instance, the title page was emblazoned with Luther's name and also asserted the book's adherence to the Augsburg Confession (the 1530 formulation of Lutheran doctrine). Sometimes these hymnbooks were promulgated by official command (as with the 1661 edition of Schiitz's Becker Psalter), and some schools might buy copies in bulk for the pupils.7 Increasingly, members of the congregation also purchased their own copies to take to services and use at home.8 The hymnals could act as compact spiritual companions, with several indexes allowing a reader to find a song that was apt for the day.

Other books contained devotional songs for domestic rather than

liturgical use. These books included a higher proportion of newly written poetry, such as metrical paraphrases of the psalms by Cornelius Becker or Martin Opitz. The music might be on a specifically chamber scale, as with the continuo arias in Johann Frentzel's Zehen andaichtige Bufl-Gesdnge (2d ed., 1655). Some of the devotional songbooks included

prayers and woodcuts to help the believer act piously throughout the

day, and many surviving copies bear frequent annotations that testify to

personal use.9 Because of their potential personal uses, most hymnbooks had a small

page-size such as octavo or duodecimo. In his Psalmodia nova (1630) Joseph Clauder extolled the advantages of the duodecimo format, saying that it allowed the book "to be used by every class of person, to be taken on journeys, and to be carried as a handbook" [jedes Standes Personen zu gebrauchen / im Reisen mit zu faihren / und als ein Handbfichlein mit zu tragen].10 Many hymnals also appealed to several classes of readers by catering for different levels of musical literacy. Quasi-official hymnals such as Calvisius's Harmonia cantionum ecclesiasticarum or Schein's Cantional gave the tunes in four-part harmony with the melody in the top voice (the so-called cantional style). Other books such as Clauder's

6. Irmgard Scheitler, Das Geistliche Lied im deutschen Barock, Schriften zur Literaturwissenschaft, 3 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1982), 85-86. See also Joseph Herl, Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Three Centuries of Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

7. Rose, "Music, Print, and Authority," 1:147, 165-66. 8. Patrice Veit, " '... daheime seine Zeit mit singen, mit beten und lesen zugebracht': Uiber den

Umgang mit Kirchenliedern im aussergottesdienstlichen Kontext," in Die QuellenJohann Sebastian Bachs: Bachs Musik im Gottesdienst; Bericht iiber das Symposium 4.-8. Oktober 1995 in der Internationalen Bachakademie

Stuttgart, ed. Renate Steiger, 329-35 (Heidelberg: Manutius, 1998). 9. For example, the British Library copy of Johann Lauterbach, Cithara Christiana: Psalmodiarum

sacrarum libri septem (Leipzig, 1586), shelf mark 3425.aa.49. 10. Joseph Clauder, Psalmodia nova, 2d ed. (Leipzig, 1630), sig. C10v-1Ir.




Psalmodia nova merely provided unharmonized tunes. Devotional titles with up-to-date continuo arias, including Frentzel's Zehen andichtige Buf/- Gesdnge, often also suggested familiar chorale tunes for readers unable or unwilling to tackle music in such modern styles. Still more books gave only the words of the songs, and thus must be excluded from this discus- sion of books that use music type. All the same, the continuum between music editions and word-only versions shows the close links between

printed music and other texts.

Treatises

The third category of printed music comprised treatises in which music type was used for examples. Most of these books were primers in the rudiments of singing and notation-the very texts that helped foster musical literacy and widespread musicmaking among amateurs. The

Leipzig publishers issued revised editions of classic sixteenth-century texts such as Heinrich Faber's Ad musicam practicam introductio (1550) as well as new guides for the seventeenth century by local musicians such as Nikolaus Gengenbach, Christoph Schultze, and Ambrosius Profe. These

primers were typically pocket-sized and, having a broad market in schools, were presumably issued in long print runs. A few books of more advanced theory also appeared in Leipzig, such as Sethus Calvisius's his-

tory of music, Exercitationes musicae duae (1600).

Occasional Pamphlets

Numerous pamphlets were issued to mark such events as weddings, funerals, or academic ceremonies, and a reasonable proportion of these titles contained music. Over two hundred pamphlets with occasional music survive from Leipzig from the period 1590-1660. In a statistical

survey that counts all titles as equal, the occasional pamphlets appear as the most numerous genre; but because the pamphlets generally contain

only a single piece, the genre is not the repository with the most music. The surviving pamphlets constitute only the tip of an iceberg of mate-

rial that is now lost. These pamphlets were issued in short print runs and were regarded as ephemera that rarely merited binding; consequently they were extremely perishable and their survival rate is undoubtedly lower than any of the other genres of printed music of the period. Of the

pamphlets that do survive, many are still unknown or are omitted from

bibliographies and catalogs. Most library holdings of pamphlets are bound up in Konvolute for which catalogers have often lacked the time or inclination to create separate entries. Consequently the in-progress union catalog of German printed literature from the seventeenth cen-




tury, the VD17,11 is now uncovering many pamphlets that were hitherto unknown.

The pamphlets appeared in a variety of formats.12 Simple songs such as wedding villanellas or funerary lieder were usually printed on a broad- sheet or bifolium. Larger-scale motets and vocal concertos appeared as a set of leaves, one for each performing part. Some occasional pieces were also printed within pamphlets that contained all the poetry, speeches, and other offerings written for an event. Thus many funerals were com- memorated by Leichenpredigten, which typically contained the sermon, an

obituary, and a collection of epitaphs to the deceased, plus sometimes a

song or motet that had been written for the event.'3 Occasional pamphlets had a distinctive status in the book trade, for

despite being printed, they were rarely published. Usually they were com- missioned direct from the printer by the dedicatee or author, and were then distributed privately as gifts to friends and relatives. Few bore the name of a publisher on their title pages and only a handful were advertised at the book fairs for commercial distribution. Printers called the

pamphlets accidentia, denoting an additional source of income;'4 the contracts for the renting of printshops sometimes contrasted the main work (Hauptwerk) for publishers of making books with the accidentia of

printing occasional poetry, theses, songs, and sermons.15 Although their name might imply that they were dispensable, accidentia were in fact vital to the economics of a printshop. As discussed below, they provided a constant stream of small jobs that could keep the presses busy even dur-

ing slack times in the book trade.

PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS IN LEIPZIG

As in many other German towns, there was a clear distinction in

Leipzig between the printer and publisher. The printer was responsible for the physical production of the book: the setting of the type, printing

11. VD17: Das Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts, http://www.vdl 7.de (accessed 25 August 2004).

12. The pamphlets have often been called "occasional prints" by English-speaking musicologists as a direct translation of the German term Gelegenheitsdrucke. I prefer "pamphlet" to "print," however, because for bibliographers the latter term denotes a printed reproduction of a work of art: "The former use of the word, to refer to a printed book or journal, is now obsolete; the habit among musicologists of refer-

ring to printed music as 'musical prints' should be discouraged." D. W. Krummel and Stanley Sadie, eds., Music Printing and Publishing (London: Macmillan; New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), 531.

13. For more details of the pamphlets and their uses, see Stephen Rose, "Schein's Occasional Music and the Social Order in 1620s Leipzig," Early Music History 23 (2004): 253-84.

14. Christian Friedrich GeBner, Die so n6thig als niitzliche Buchdruckerkunst und Schriftgiesserey, 4 vols.

(Leipzig: C. F. GeBner, 1740-45), 1:164. 15. See the 1612 contract between Wolfgang Meissner and Abraham Lamberg, transcribed partially in

Albrecht Kirchhoff, "Lesefriichte aus den Acten des stddtischen Archivs zu Leipzig," Archivfiir Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels 12 (1889): 149 n. 5.




of the sheets, and possibly any stop-press corrections. On the title page of the finished book, the printer's name would be introduced by phrases referring to the physical action of printing, such as druck, typis, or excude- bat. By contrast, the publisher identified the market for the book and

supplied the capital for its production. In Leipzig the publisher was ei- ther the author or a bookseller such as Caspar Klosemann or Henning Grosse. Usually the publisher would buy the text from the author, pay for its printing, and supply the printer with paper. On a title page, the publisher was introduced by the words in Verlegung or by formulae indicating financial involvement (expensis, impensis, sumptibus, in Kosten von).

Most books from Leipzig acknowledge both the printer and the publisher on their title pages. The imprint on the title page of Schiltz's Erster Theil kleiner geistlichen Concerten (1636) reads: "Leipzig I In Vorlegung Gottfried Grossens Buchhindl. I Gedruckt bey Gregor Ritzschen" [Leip- zig. Published by Gottfried Grosse, bookseller. Printed by Gregor Ritzsch]. Several printers worked for publishers in other towns: Henning K6ler made books for Breslau entrepreneurs, including partbook editions for the organist Ambrosius Profe and devotional manuals for the bookseller David Miiller. Occasional pamphlets, of course, acknowledged solely the printer on their title pages, because they were private objects that were not published.

A few firms were both printers and publishers. Abraham Lamberg, for instance, was one of the city's biggest booksellers and also owned a

printshop. He printed some music editions, such as Calvisius's Tricinia

(1603) for the bookseller Jakob Apel; but he was mainly active as a publisher, issuing partbook collections such as Schein's Cymbalum sionium

(1615) and Banchetto musicale (1617). By the 1610s Lamberg concen- trated on his publishing and bookselling business, and he leased one or more of his presses to a series of short-lived printers such as Paul Schedler and Andreas Mamitzsch. Several other booksellers likewise owned printshops that they did not operate themselves: in the 1620s the Grosse family leased several of their presses to Johann Albrecht Mintzel, while in the 1650s Friedrich Lanckisch Jr. rented out a press to

Christoph Cellarius.16 Although the printers were only one part of the team required to

make a music book, they form the focus of this article. The printers were

responsible for the typography, design, and accuracy of the printed arti- facts that survive today. Some archival evidence exists to document the

16. For comprehensive lists of printers and publishers, see Josef Benzing, Die Buchdrucker des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts im deutschen Sprachgebiet, 2d ed. (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1982), 275-91; and

Benzing, "Die deutschen Verleger des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: Eine Neuearbeitung," Archiv fiir Geschichte des Buchwesens 18 (1977): 1078-1322.




role of publishers in the financial and legal side of the music trade, but

many of the printers' actions and preferences can be inferred from bib-

liographical study of the extant books and pamphlets.

THE INCIDENCE OF MUSIC PRINTING

Reading through the prefaces to music books issued in central

Germany during the Thirty Years' War, the impression is that printing was severely interrupted. Only a few years into the war, Burckhard Grossmann complained in his Angst der Hellen (Jena, 1623) of the devas- tation that "Saul's spear" had inflicted upon musical life. After bemoan-

ing the decline in music at court, church, and school, he complained that:

Saul's spear is also found in printshops in order that the noble music may not gain strength, or that one or another musical composition to the praise and glory of God may not see the light of day, since no one will devote himself to the requisite notes, rests, staves, and other characters, and among ten journeyman-printers scarcely one can be found who has learned how to set or print these things or has a desire to learn this. Such persons commonly excuse themselves on the basis of scarcity, that is, musical works are rarely required.

[Sauls SpieB ist auch ... gar gemein in Druckereyen / damit ja die edle Musica nicht zu Krifften / noch ein oder das ander Opus Musicum zu GOttes Lob vnd PreiB ans Liecht kommen soll / denn niemand wil auff Notas, Pausen / Linien vnd andere hierzu n6htige Characteres etwas wenden / und wil sich vnter zehen DruckerGesellen manchmal nicht einer finden / der solche Dinge zu Setzen oder zu Drucken gelernet / oder zu lernen Lust hette. Diese entschuldigen sich aber gemeiniglich eben ex hoc capite raritatis, die opera Musica wehren seltzam / und kemen selten.]'7

Grossmann's "Praefatio" is a ten-page display of masterly rhetoric, so we

may suspect him of hyperbole. Nonetheless, by the 1630s music books from Leipzig also mentioned the decline in music printing. In the preface to his Erster Theil kleiner geistlichen Concerten (1636), Schfitz stated that this was an interim publication and that the war had prevented him from

issuing his larger concertos. The printing of polyphony did undoubtedly decline in the war years.

Yet my own bibliographical survey contradicts Grossmann's claim that few printers were prepared to set music. Between 1590 and 1660, a total of forty printers are known to have worked in Leipzig.'8 Music was issued

by twenty-six of these firms, as listed in table 1. The statistics become

17. Burckhard Grossmann, ed., Angst der Hellen und Friede der Seelen (Jena, 1623), tenor partbook, sig. Biv.

18. Benzing, Die Buchdrucker des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, 275-91.




TABLE 1: Extant music from Leipzig printers, 1590-1660

Printer Partbook Hymnal Treatise Occasional Total

Hans Steinmann 1571-83 2 2 (heirs to 1593)

Johann Beyer 1573-96 3 3 (heirs to 1609)

Zacharias Berwald 1585-98 1 7 5 13 (heirs to 1602)

Abraham Lamberg 1587-1629 10 10 6 26 (heirs to 1635)

Michael Lantzenberger t 13 2 1 16 1590-1612 (heirs to 1613)

Franz Schnellboltz 1595-1601 3 2 5 (heirs to 1604)

Gotthard V6gelin 1598-1622 1 1 Valentin am Ende 1602-14 4 7 1 10 22

(heirs to 1619) Jakob Popporeich # 1603-12 3 3 Lorenz Kober 1611-19 5 5 12 22

JustusJansonius 1614-35 1 1 Nikolaus Ball (typis 1 1

Tobias Beyer) 1614-18 Johann Glfick * 1617-24 4 2 1 32 39 Friedrich Lanckisch Sr. 11 2 2 32 47

1617-31 (heirs to 1652) Andreas Mamitzsch * 1620-23 2 2 Paul Schedler * 1622-23 1 1

Gregor Ritzsch 1624-43 7 11 1 56 76

Johann Albrecht Mintzel 1 1 1625-41

Henning K61ler 1633-56 7 3 1 3 14 (widow to 1667)

Timotheus Ritzsch 1638-78 4 2 6 12 Timotheus H6n 1640-47 4 1 4 9

(heirs to 1651) Johann Wittigau 1650-71 1 1

(heirs to 1693) Johann Bauer 1650-75 1 1 2 4

(heirs to 1683) Quirin Bauch 1652-60 3 7 10

Christoph Cellarius t (typis 2 1 11 14 Friedrich Lanckisch Jr.) 1652-58

Johann Erich Hahn 1656-78 2 5 7

TOTAL BY GENRE 60 85 10 196 351

* leased Lamberg's press # leased Berwald's press t leased the V6gelin press from Hieronymus Brehm t operated the press of Friedrich Lanckisch Jr.

Several books omit the printer's name and are therefore excluded from this table.

Dates of printers' operations determined from my own bibliographical survey and also from: Christian Friedrich GeBner, Die so n6thig als niitzliche Buchdruckerkunst, 4 vols.

(Leipzig: C. F. GeBner, 1740), 1:100-117; and Josef Benzing, Die Buchdrucker des 16. und 17.

Jahrhunderts im deutschen Sprachgebiet, 2d ed. (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1982), 275-91.




more striking if they are confined to longer-lived firms-those that lasted for more than five years. Music was issued by twenty-three out of the

twenty-eight longer-lived firms. Of course, not all of these firms were issuing ambitious partbook col-

lections of the kind that Grossmann probably meant. As table 1 shows, most printers issued only a few music books and restricted themselves to

hymnals and occasional pamphlets. In such genres, the music was often a subsidiary element and might consist of only a few monophonic tunes:

hardly the stuff to challenge a printer. Twelve firms, however, produced partbook collections, the specialist format for polyphony. The most active of these were Abraham Lamberg, Henning K61ler, Friedrich Lanckisch Sr., and Gregor Ritzsch. I have already introduced Lamberg, a

printer-publisher who was notorious for his rancorous relations with other firms.19 Ritzsch also deserves mention: he was a minor poet who often added a verse of his own to the many occasional pamphlets that he printed, and thereby secured himself a minor place in Leipzig literary life.20

Although most printers produced only a handful of music books each, in every other respect they were big operations. Gregor Ritzsch's surviv-

ing output contains over nine hundred titles (mainly devotional books and occasional pamphlets); at least seventy-five of these books contain

music.21 The size of some of the Leipzig printers is also indicated by the number of presses in their workshops. Ritzsch started his operation in 1624 with six presses, but in 1627 reduced this number to two because of the decline in business caused by the Thirty Years' War.22 Johann Beyer, a

printer-publisher active until 1596, had three presses listed in his postmortem inventory.23 To put these figures into perspective, the Venetian music printers Gardano and Scotto had two or three presses each in the 1560s-70s.24 Of course, the Italian firms may have under-declared their

holdings to avoid paying tax, and not all the Leipzig presses were neces-

sarily in use. But the Leipzig printers do seem to have operated on a

large scale, despite mainly serving a local market. The high number of printers issuing music raises the question of whether

each printshop set music itself or whether the work was subcontracted to

19. Albrecht Kirchhoff, "Die Anfange des Leipziger MeBkatalogs," Archiv fitr Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels 7 (1882): 101-3.

20. Michael William Wilson, "The Ritzsch Family of Poets: Three Generations of Baroque Writers" (Ph.D. diss., University of California at Santa Barbara, 1992).

21. Statistics from VD17. 22. Albrecht Kirchhoff, "Material, Arbeit und wirtschaftliche Resultate in den Leipziger Buch-

druckerei bis zumJahr 1650," ZeitschriftfiirDeutschlands Buchdrucker 1 (1889): 195-96. 23. Stadtarchiv Leipzig, NachlaBinventarium 1594-98, fol. 62r. 24. Richard Agee, The Gardano Music Printing Firm, 1569-1611 (Rochester: University of Rochester

Press, 1998), 39.




a specialist. Type was a printer's costliest equipment,25 and firms would seem unlikely to acquire music type unless it was regularly used. Nonetheless the inventories of two small printshops show that both owned music type. Johann Beyer, who was active 1551-96 as a printer and bookseller, had three sets of music font. The 1596 postmortem inventory of his estate lists thirty-one sets of type, including "a crate of music type" [ein Kasto mit Noten] that was probably for use in quarto partbooks.26 Another font was stored away from his main stock and was described as "music type for octavo hymnals" [Noten zum gesangbiichlein in Octavo

geh6rig], presumably the font that he had used in his pocket-sized devotional books.27 Beyer also held a comparative rarity-letters for German

organ tablature.28 He had used these for one of the few organ books

printed in Leipzig, Johannes Riihling's Tabulaturbuch of 1583. A 1601 inventory for the press of Hieronymus Brehm lists a range of

matrices for casting type. Like the owners of several other printshops, Brehm did not work the press himself but instead rented it out to job- bing printers such as Michael Lantzenberger. The inventory shows that Brehm owned matrices for casting thirty-three fonts: twelve sets of Fraktur Gothic (for German texts), four sets of Greek letters, sixteen sets of roman fonts (for Latin), and one set of "welsche Noten."29 The "welsche Noten" can be identified with the help of a Leipzig proofread- ing manual of 1608, where the term is used for the music font included in the specimen of various types (see fig. 1).30 The manual had been

printed by Brehm's lessee, Lantzenberger, so we can be reasonably confi- dent that the font used is the same as that listed in the inventory. The

typeface has a small stave approximately 7 mm high, and was suitable for

hymnals and devotional books; it is almost certainly the same design as

Beyer's font "for octavo hymnals." Although the term "welsche" usually denoted something Italian, the font's origins seem to have been in the Low Countries: it was related to the typefaces designed by the Flemish

typecutter Robert Granjon.3'

25. Brian Richardson, Printing, Writers, and Readers in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 26; Kirchhoff, "Material, Arbeit," 94-97.

26. NachlaBinventarium 1594-98, fol. 62r. 27. Ibid., fol. 71r. Beyer presumably used this type in Nicolaus Herman, Die Sontags Evangelia (1581);

Geistliche Lieder Doct. Martini Lutheri (1583); Nikolaus Selnecker, Christliche Psalmen (1587); and Caspar Melissander [i.e., Bienemann], Christliches Ehebiichlein (1588).

28. NachlaBinventarium 1594-98, fol. 62r. 29. Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Richterstube Teil 1 Nr. 690, Bd. 1, fols. 10r-lr; also in Bd. 2, fols. 195v-97r. 30. Hieronymus Hornschuch, Orthotypographia, hoc est, instructio, operas typographica correcturis (Leipzig,

1608), 44; reprint, with parallel English translation by Philip Gaskell and Patricia Bradford on facing pages, Cambridge University Library Historical Bibliography Series, 1 (Cambridge: University Library, 1972).

31. D. W. Krummel, "Early German Partbook Typefaces," Gutenberg Jahrbuch 60 (1985): 95 n. 36. On the "Granjon" font, see Krummel, English Music Printing 1553-1700 (London: Bibliographical Society, 1975), 50-52.




The archives do not indicate which printers held music type in the 1620s, but typographic evidence suggests that several had their own stocks. During this decade most printers used a font that was introduced

by Abraham Lamberg in about 1607 and has consequently been dubbed

"Lamberg" by D. W. Krummel.32 With a stave just over 10 mm high, this font was ideal for partbook editions printed in quarto. But there are subtle differences between the font as used by Friedrich Lanckisch Sr. and by Gregor Ritzsch. At the end of pieces, Ritzsch tended to use thick double barlines and very wide flagged breves (up to 7 mm wide), whereas Lanckisch used thinner versions of these symbols (compare figs. 2 and 3). There also seem to be differences between the barred-C time

signature used by Ritzsch and Lanckisch, although further study is needed before any conclusions can be made. Nonetheless, these typographic differences suggest that the printers were using independent stocks of type.

On the other hand, printing presses were frequently leased to journeymen, and such arrangements might permit the sharing of type. After Johann Beyer died in 1596, his printshop was rented first by Franz Schnellboltz and then by Valentin am Ende, who both had formerly been his factors or journeymen.33 The imprint on their music books

acknowledged their use of Beyer's type: "Gedruckt zu Leipzig durch Valentin am Ende. Typis Haeredum Beyeri" [Printed in Leipzig by Valentin am Ende. Type from Beyer's heirs].34 These books use the

"Granjon" font that is pictured in figure 1, and, as I have already argued, is probably the typeface described in Beyer's inventory as being "suitable for octavo hymnals." Around 1610, however, Am Ende ceased to acknowl-

edge Beyer's type and instead began to use the music font identified above as "Lamberg," presumably a set that he had acquired for himself.35

Further examples of the sharing or leasing of type occur with the short-lived firms that rented a press from Abraham Lamberg, such as

Johann Giick, Andreas Mamitzsch, Wolfgang Meissner, and Paul Schedler. These lessees acknowledged their use of Lamberg's type with the phrase "Typis Lambergianis" on their imprints. Some of them, in fact, may have been subsidiaries of Lamberg and perhaps should not be counted as independent firms in table 1. Wolfgang Meissner's contract confined him to printing Lamberg's own projects and forbade him to deal with any other publisher without Lamberg's permission; such

32. Krummel, "Early German Partbook Typefaces," 92-93. 33. Josef Benzing, Die Buchdrucker des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts im deutschen Sprachgebiet, Beitrdge zum

Buch- und Bibliothekswesen, 12 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1963), 267-68. 34. Title page, Sethus Calvisius, Harmonia cantionum ecclesiasticarum, 3d ed. (Leipzig, 1605). 35. See, for example, Jakob Schedlich, Magnificat per octo tonos (Leipzig, 1613), a partbook set printed

by Valentin am Ende forJohann B6rner and Elias Rehefeld.




,e f fctN Ott"*

...... ..ONO" ?rML

Fig. 1. "Welsche Noten" or the "Granjon" typeface. Hieronymus Hornschuch, Orthotypographia (Leipzig, 1608), 44. By permission of the Syndics of Cambridge

University Library.

restrictive conditions led him to quit his lease within a year.36 A close re-

lationship between Lamberg and another lessee is evident in Erhard Bodenschatz's Florilegii musici portensis (1621). Here the title page says that the book was printed by Lamberg in 1621, while the colophon in the tenor partbook reads "TYPIS LAMBERGIANIS I Druckts Andreas Mamitzsch I ANNO I M. DC. XX." In other words, Mamitzsch was responsible for the physical act of printing, but Lamberg supplied the type and

may also have set it. With such complicated relationships between printers, it is hard to tell how many firms used their own type; but it is proba- ble that there were at least five or six sets of music type being used in

Leipzig at any one time.

THE MUSICAL LITERACY OF PRINTERS

The way that music was produced by small, nonspecialist printers raises questions about the musical literacy of compositors, proofreaders, and master printers. Even when printers set ordinary German texts, there were numerous complaints about their shoddy and inaccurate work. Hieronymus Hornschuch, a student who worked as a proofreader in the Leipzig printshops, complained that books were not checked

thoroughly, that letters were often transposed, and that the orthography of German texts was poor.37 The printers also accused each other of low standards, with Gotthard V6gelin Jr. describing Michael Lantzenberger as "illiterate" [hominem illiteratum].38 If they had such problems with

36. Kirchhoff, "Material, Arbeit," 176. 37. Hornschuch, 6-7, 21. 38. Quoted in Hans-Dieter Dyroff, "Gotthard V6gelin: Verleger, Drucker, Buchhandler 1597-1631,"

Archivfiir Geschichte des Buchwesens 4 (1962): 1256.




ordinary texts, the Leipzig printers must have struggled with the specialized symbols of musical notation. As already mentioned, Burckhard Grossmann alleged that only one printer's journeyman out of ten knew how to set music, although this may have been a rhetorical exaggeration.

Some music printers were probably supervised by the composer or were helped by able students; students such as Hornschuch undoubtedly assisted printers with Latin and Greek texts. Yet printed music and partbook collections in particular were often marred by errors. Gregor Ritzsch, for instance, could print music accurately for hymnals and occasional pamphlets, but he was stretched to the limit of his abilities by partbook collections. It was not as if he were uneducated; on the contrary, he wrote much poetry and perhaps also a funerary song that is ascribed to "G. R."39 Partbook format, however, required the printer to plan a set of

multiple volumes and to ensure the accuracy of each constituent part. During the first few years of his business Ritzsch seems to have shied

away from the technical challenge of printing in this format. By the 1630s, however, when the workshops of such firms as Lamberg and Lanckisch were razed in the war, he started to tackle partbook collections, including Tobias Michael's Musicalische Seelenlust erster Theil (1634- 35) and Heinrich Schiitz's Erster Theil kleiner geistlichen Concerten (1636). But both books are riddled with errors. The surviving copies of Michael's collection abound in handwritten corrections, especially in the continuo book. At the end of the quarta vox book there is a printed afterword, possibly by the composer himself: "I have corrected all copies by hand at no small trouble" [habe ich zwar mit nicht geringer Muihe in allen

Exemplarien mit der Feder ... corrigiret]. Ritzsch was also taxed by the affective, Italianate writing of Schfitz's collection with its wide variety of note values and complex figured bass. The exemplar that Schuitz presented to Duke August of Brunswick-Liineburg (now in the Herzog- August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbiuttel) contains four or five corrections per piece in the composer's hand.40 The errors may have resulted from Schiutz being unable to supervise the edition: he usually used the court

printer in Dresden, his place of employment, but in 1636 the disruption of war may have forced him or his publisher to make do with Ritzsch in

Leipzig.4' When the hostilities subsided slightly, Schiutz reverted to the

39. "O Leipzig klag betrawre heut," in Polycarp Leyser, Leichenpredigt Vincent Schmuck (Leipzig, 1628). 40. Herzog-August-Bibliothek, shelf mark 13.1-5 Musica fol. Schiitz's corrections are listed in the criti-

cal commentary to Philipp Spitta's edition of Schfitz's Samtliche Werke, vol. 6 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hfirtel, 1887).

41. In a letter of 10 April 1661, Schfitz explained that he had stayed for more than eight months in Dresden in order "to complete and publish in print" [fimb verfertigung und auslassung in druck] the second edition of his Becker Psalter. Letters and Documents of Heinrich Schiitz, 1656-1672: An Annotated Translation, trans. Gina Spagnoli (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 1992), 309.




'Tenor.

(.... ..o Bona

,e . i .

Ine Itctn ~er~ 3orn du fUl~a.

Fig. 2. Friedrich Lanckisch Sr.'s version of "Lamberg" typeface (J. H. Schein, Selige Hinfarth, 1629). BibliotekaJagielloriska, Cracow, Mus. ant. pract. S538.

xltul,

- .--- _

bot (c l • iri ht trarorfg fep /Zl tt( mid)/fftt o tr)r,oitd)t ((r4 vit

Fig. 3. Gregor Ritzsch's version of "Lamberg" typeface (J. H. Schein, Himlische Ehrenkron, 1629). BibliotekaJagiellofiska, Cracow, Mus. ant. pract. S540.

official court printer in Dresden, Gimel Berg, for the second part of the Kleine geistliche Concerten (1639). Meanwhile Ritzsch, perhaps recognizing his firm's limits, did not take on any further partbook editions.

SPECIALISMS AND ALLIANCES

Most of the printers and booksellers in Leipzig specialized in a particular music-publishing genre. As table 1 shows, many printers largely dealt in hymnals, such as Michael Lantzenberger in the 1590s and Valentin am Ende in the 1600s. A hymnal rarely required complicated music and generally had good prospects for sales; some indeed had a guaranteed market, being promulgated by official decree. Consequently, publishers were

usually happy to underwrite hymnbooks and devotional books. Most of the hymnals printed by Lantzenberger and Am Ende, for instance, were

published by Jakob Apel. Hymnals also constituted the greatest proportion of the music published by the city's senior bookselling dynasty, that of Henning Grosse and his son Gottfried.




Abraham Lamberg tackled partbook editions as both a printer and a

publisher, but always with a preference for books that would sell well.

Many of his editions seem tailor-made for churches and schools of central Germany: pedagogical collections such as the Tricinia (1603) by Calvisius; motet cycles for the liturgical year by Rogier Michael (Introitus dominicorum, 1603) and Christoph Demantius (Corona harmonica, 1610); and, most notably, five anthologies of motets and hymns edited by Erhard Bodenschatz. Bodenschatz's anthologies included the two books of Florilegium portense that contained an exhaustive selection of motets for

liturgical use; the set became such a staple in Lutheran churches that

Johann Sebastian Bach was still using and buying copies over a century later.42 Bodenschatz had briefly been cantor at the electoral school at Pforta, where many of the elite of Saxony were educated; it was an influ- ential establishment, and by incorporating its name in the titles of his books, Bodenschatz claimed a similar importance for his publications. Lamberg was no doubt aware of the cachet of the Pforta name but also had a personal connection with the school, having been a pupil there in the 1570s.43 Perhaps this gave him an advantage at soliciting manuscripts from Pforta alumni, for several other composers on his list-including Calvisius, Rogier Michael, and Schein-had taught or studied at the school.

Apart from Lamberg, however, few booksellers showed much interest in publishing partbook editions. Instead, several composers resorted to

self-publishing. Schein published all his partbook collections himself from 1618 onwards; Christoph Schultze published his Collegium musicum charitativum (1647); and Johann Rosenmfiller published his Kern-Spriiche mehrentheils aus heiliger Schriffl (1648), and collaborated with the heirs of the bookseller Henning Grosse to finance his Studenten Music (1654). In 1623 Schein implied that one reason for his self-publishing was the dire economic situation, speaking of the "outrageous, inhuman inflation, by which piety as well as all free arts and music have found themselves ut-

terly bereft" [die vnerh6rte unmenschliche Thewrung / bey welcher denn gewiBlich nebenst der wahren pietet, alle freye Kiinste / vnd also auch die edle ... Music fast gantz defect sich befinden].44 Another reason, though, might have been a concern for accuracy and a desire to supervise closely the production of a book; in 1626 he wrote of his "previously

42. Fremdschriftliche und gedruckte Dokumente zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs, 1685-1750: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. Werner Neumann and Hans-Joachim Schulze, Bach-Dokumente, 2 (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1969), 199, 294. There are no known editions of Florilegium portense after 1621, so it is likely that Bach acquired secondhand copies.

43. GeBner, 1:101. 44. Schein, Fontant d'Israel, Israelis Briinlein (Leipzig, 1623), continuo book, fol. (a)2r.




issued musical things, which I published myself out of particular concern for their correction" [meine biBhero ausgegangene Musicalische Sachen / weil ich dieselben nicht ohne sonderbares bendecken der Correction selbst verleget].45 A similar preoccupation with correctness and authorial control might explain why, even in the heyday of the German music trade during the 1590s, composers such as Jakob Handl were often their own publishers.46

Although many of the printers in Leipzig avoided tackling partbook editions, almost all of them were happy to produce occasional pamphlets (see table 1). It should be noted that table 1 includes only surviving titles, and therefore does not show the full extent of occasional pamphlets, which were particularly perishable. Even so, the numbers of sur-

viving pamphlets are testimony to their prevalence. Occasional songs dominated the music output of Friedrich Lanckisch Sr. and Gregor Ritzsch; Johann Glfick printed little else, apart from a few partbook editions for Lamberg and Schein. Glfick rented his press from Lamberg and

may have been contractually obliged to specialize in these accidentia. I have already mentioned how a previous Lamberg lessee, Wolfgang Meissner, was forbidden in his contract to work for publishers other than

Lamberg.47 Occasional pamphlets, however, were not published but com- missioned by the dedicatee or author, allowing the lessee to build up a trade independent of Lamberg. It is also possible that Lamberg asked his lessees to relieve him of the accidentia so that he could concentrate on his bookselling business.

Occasional pamphlets were lucrative for printers for two reasons.

Firstly they had short print runs and, as I show below, therefore allowed a

printer to charge a higher rate, because there were fewer copies over which to recoup the fixed costs of typesetting.48 Secondly, accidentia allowed printers to work directly to the commission of author or patron, without a publisher taking a cut. Consequently some printers had a

strong preference for accidentia and complained whenever publishers or outsiders tried to intervene in this side of their business.49 A few publishers even feared that the high-quality paper they supplied for their books was being appropriated by the printers for use in occasional pamphlets.50

45. "Auvertimento" to Opella nova ander Theil (Leipzig, 1626), continuo book. 46. Stephen Rose, "Mechanisms of the Music Trade in Central Germany, 1600-1640," Journal of the

Royal Musical Association 130 (2005), forthcoming. 47. Kirchhoff, "Material, Arbeit," 176. 48. See also Bernd Praetorius, "Stadt und Literatur im Frfihabsolutismus am Beispiel Leipzigs"

(Magisterarbeit, Universitit Osnabrfick, 1985), 105. 49. Kirchhoff, "Material, Arbeit," 188. 50. Albrecht Kirchhoff, "Streitigkeiten fiber die Gewerbsbefugnisse in Leipzig im Jahre 1598 ff.,"

Archivfiir Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels 7 (1882): 135-36.




Accidentia also served an important economic function for printers, providing a constant stream of small jobs that could maintain their business through slack periods. Even when a printer was engaged on a big job such as a book, the accidentia could provide regular short-term income. Occasional pamphlets became still more significant to printshops in the 1620s, when the production of books dwindled as a consequence of economic instability and the war then crippling much of Germany. In

Leipzig, the resultant spare capacity in the printshops was filled by men such as Gregor Ritzsch who cultivated the market for occasional verse at

weddings and funerals. Ritzsch fostered close links with the town's students, professors, clerics, and musicians; he frequently printed their poetry and songs, often adding a rough-hewn verse of his own. He may have initiated some of these pamphlets of verse himself and presented them as unsolicited offerings in the hope of a reward from the recipient. Ritzsch's extensive output of pamphlets coincided with the burgeoning of vernacular verse in Leipzig among such poets as Christian Brehme, Paul Fleming, Sigismund Finckelthaus, and David Schirmer. It also coincided with the worst years of the war, when the frequency of funerals in- creased and when pamphlets sometimes helped to spread news of the latest events. But another reason for Ritzsch's extensive output was sim-

ply the need to keep the press busy. He always required new material, and it was in his interest to maintain the custom of celebrating weddings and funerals with printed offerings.

PRINT RUNS

Some print runs are recorded in the Leipzig archives, although such

figures can be difficult to interpret. It is hard to know which books were

typical and which were exceptional; it is even harder to relate the raw figures to how books were distributed and used. Nonetheless, the statistics from Leipzig represent a useful addition to the small fund of existing information about musical print runs.51

In 1604 Gotthard V6gelin Jr., a Heidelberg printer whose father had worked in Leipzig and who maintained links with the town, wrote that one thousand copies was the minimum edition-size for ordinary books. Twelve hundred was his usual print run, however, and in the case of schoolbooks he might issue as many as four thousand copies.52 Some- what similarly, a Saxon edict of 1623 isolated one thousand copies as the benchmark figure determining the rate charged for printing.53 Shorter

51. For data from the previous century, see Richard Agee, "A Venetian Music Printing Contract and Edition Size in the Sixteenth Century," Studi musicali 15 (1986): 61-65.

52. Dyroff, 1219. 53. "Tax Ordnung," reprinted in Gelner, 2:b7r-b8v.




print runs were more expensive while those over 1,500 or 2,000 copies triggered discount rates (see below). These examples corroborate modern thinking that ordinary books were issued in runs of 1,000-1,200 copies.54

Evidence survives of the print runs of two partbook editions from

seventeenth-century Leipzig. One is the Ander Theil newer Paduanen (1630) of Samuel Michael, a collection of instrumental dances. The book was printed by Gregor Ritzsch for the publisher Michael Wachs- mann; it is no longer extant, save for some fragments located by Werner Braun in the binding of another volume, but details of its production and cost are preserved in a ledger in the Stadtarchiv Leipzig (see appendix).55 Wachsmann had died on 4 August 1629 but his publishing projects already underway were completed by his widow and heir, Maria. Her transactions from 3 August 1629 to 19 July 1632 were recorded by the Richterstube, a council chamber that supervised probate and creditors. The ledger is similar to most documents of the book trade in that it de- scribes Samuel Michael's edition in terms of the quantity of paper used.56 Each partbook set required 36 1/2 sheets of paper, while the total amount of paper needed for the edition was 7 bales, 4 reams, and 16 quires (or 37,400 sheets). Hence there was enough paper to make 1,024 copies; al-

lowing for wastage and proofs, it is likely that the commercial print run was a thousand copies. Similar print runs are listed for several other books in the ledger. For a Hoheliedt (Song of Songs), Ritzsch printed 1,000 copies, plus 10 on high-quality Schreibpappier; for Arnold Menger- ing's Catechismus patriarchialis, 1,000 copies were issued, plus 20 presentation copies on Schreibpappierwith red-and-black title pages.

A shorter print run is documented for a later partbook collection, the second edition of Christoph Schultze's Collegium musicum charitativum (1678). No copies of this book are extant, but Schultze appended a note to an exemplar of the first edition of 1647:

1678: I sent my music, somewhat revised, to be printed for a second time and received 400 copies, which with paper, six Sticklein and other costs came to 6 thaler 18 groschen. On 16June I had fifty-two copies bound and sent them off.

54. Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450-1800, trans. by David Gerard (London: Verso, 1990), 218-19; translation of L'apparition du livre, first published in English in 1976 (London: N.L.B.).

55. Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Richerstube Teil 1, Nr. 1269, 16-24. Extensively discussed in Werner Braun, Samuel Michael und die Instrumentalmusik um 1630 (Saarbrficken: Saarbrficker Druckerei, 1990), 9, 22-33.

56. Units of paper volume: 1 Bale (Ballen) = 10 reams (Reifen); 1 ream = 20 quires (Biicher); 1 quire = 24 sheets (Bogen) of writing paper (Schreibpappier) or 25 sheets (Bogen) of printing paper (Druckpappier).




[Anno 1678 habe ich meine Musicam etwas verendert zum andernmahl zum Drucke bef6rdert und 400 exemplaria bekommen, welche mich mit pappier, Sechs St6cklein und andern Unkosten kommen auf 6 Thlr. 18 Gr. Und habe darvon 52 binden lassen und verschickt den 16. Juni.]57

This print run of 400 copies is considerably less than that for Michael's Paduanen and may reflect the decline of music printing in the second half of the century. By this time, modern repertories such as vocal concertos were circulating exclusively in manuscript, and composers such as Sebastian Kniupfer and Johann Schelle rarely entered print if at all.5s8 On the other hand, the print run of Michael's book may have been un-

usually long, perhaps because there was a strong market for instrumental

pieces for domestic and convivial use. It is also possible that Michael's

publisher overestimated the likely demand for the book and printed too

many copies; he was not an experienced music publisher and his only other known music book had been the previous installment of Michael's Paduanen, issued in 1627.

Print runs varied greatly, often for reasons that are unclear to us. Occasional pamphlets in particular were produced in a wide variety of

print runs. The 1612 contract between Wolf Meissner and Abraham

Lamberg specified 500-600 copies as typical for accidentia.59 These figures seem somewhat high: in a summary of evidence from across

Germany, Gerd-Rildiger Koretzki suggests that accidentia were usually issued in runs of 120 to 400 copies.60 Erudite poetry and notated music were probably produced in even smaller runs. When Schein offered a

printed pamphlet of a vocal concerto to the Leipzig council in 1629, he sent thirty copies.61 Similar figures may be seen in examples from a poet in Nuremberg: during the 1660s, Sigmund von Birken presented his occasional verse in batches ranging between 22 and 150 copies.62

On the other hand, hymnals and treatises may have been issued in

print runs closer to 1,500 or 2,000 copies. Bookdealers usually stocked

57. Arno Werner, "Zur Musikgeschichte von Delitzsch," Archiv fir Musikwissenschaft 1 (1918-19): 550-51.

58. Stephen Rose, "Music, Print, and Presentation in Seventeenth-Century Saxony," German History 25 (2005), forthcoming.

59. Kirchhoff, "Material, Arbeit," 146. 60. Gerd-Rfidiger Koretzki, "Leichenpredigten und ihre Druckherstellung: Ein Beitrag zur Unter-

suchung der materiellen Voraussetzungen einer gesellschaftlichen Modeerscheinung," in Leichen- predigten als Quelle historischer Wissenschaften, Bd. 2: Zweites Marburger Personalschriftensymposion, Forschungs- gegenstand Leichenpredigten: Eine internationale Fachkonferenz der deutschen Forschungsgemeinschafit, ed. Rudolf Lenz (Marburg: Lahn Schwarz, 1979), 343.

61. Letter of 11 May 1629. Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Akten zur Thomasschule Stift VIII Bd. 2a, fols. 231-32 (modern foliation). A copy of the piece, Lamentatio ecclesiae, is preserved in the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum, Leipzig.

62. Sigmund von Birken, Die Tagebiicher des Sigmund von Birken, ed. Joachim Kr6ll, 2 vols., Quellen und Darstellungen zur frdnkischen Kunstgeschichte, 5 (Wihrzburg: Sch6ningh, 1971-74), 1:391, 394.




many more copies of these titles than of partbook editions. Take for ex-

ample the Leipzig outlet of the Wittenberg bookseller Andreas Hoff- mann. A postmortem inventory of 6 December 1600 shows that he held

single copies of several lute tablatures, a single copy of an old Wittenberg partbook set, and two copies of a partbook set by Otto Harnisch. By contrast he had 149 copies of that favorite school text, Listenius's Musica, and 92 copies of an "Enchiridion practicae musicae" (table 2).63 Large numbers of devotional titles and treatises were also held by the

printer-publisher Johann Beyer on his death in 1596, notably 335 copies of Calvisius's basic primer, Compendium musicae pro incipientibus (1594).64 He also held many hymnals and devotional titles that he himself had

printed:65

Nicolaus Herman, Evangelia 620 copies Gesangbiicher Lutheri in quarto 20 copies Gesangbiicher Lutheri in octavo 631 copies Gesangbiicher Lutheri in duodecimo 356 copies Nikolaus Selnecker, Kirchengesenge in quarto 359 copies Neunundneunzig Lieder 320 copies

Beyer had far more copies of the Gesangbuch Luther in octavo and duodecimo than in quarto. Perhaps the pocket-sized editions were produced in higher numbers in the expectation of greater sales. But again, the varied sizes of his holdings should remind us of the dangers of taking the few documented print runs as representative of the heterogeneous print culture in Leipzig.

PRINTING COSTS

Shortly after the start of the Thirty Years' War, most German states de- valued their currency and a period of severe inflation ensued (the so- called Kipper- und Wipper-Zeit). As part of the recovery from this economic chaos, in 1623 the elector of Saxony issued an edict regulating the cost of paper and printing.66 The rates for printing depended on the location of the press, the length of the print run, and the size of font. In

Leipzig, the edict prescribed the price of printing a bale (Ballen) of

paper. Editions of 1,000 copies were charged at the rate of 5 gulden per

63. Albrecht Kirchhoff, "Sortiments-MeBlager in Leipzig: Andreas Hoffmann von Wittenberg," Archiv

fiir Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels 17 (1894): 73. 64. This was the first edition, of which no copies survive today. 65. NachlaBinventarium 1594-98, fol. 72r-75r. 66. "Tax Ordnung," reprinted in GeBner, 2:b7r-b8v.




bale. Print runs over 1,500 or 2,000 copies received lower rates, while editions of fewer than 1,000 copies cost 6 gulden per bale. By contrast, in the Erzgebirgischen KreiB (the "Ore Mountains" on the Bohemian bor- der, including such towns as Chemnitz, Schneeberg, and Zwickau) prices depended on the kind of text being set. One sheet of German text cost 18 groschen, one sheet of Latin cost 1 florin, and one of Greek 1 florin 6 pfennig.67 One sheet of "Gesinge" (songs) cost 18 groschen, the same as German texts. "Gesdinge" is an ambiguous term that could refer to

song-texts or staff notation. ("Noten" would be a more usual word for the latter, but on the other hand there is no reason why song-texts should be listed as a separate category from ordinary German texts.) If the edict was referring to notation, then music carried no special sur-

charge, despite being (like Greek) a language with many complicated and unfamiliar symbols.

In practice printers did not follow the electoral edict, whose pricing proved inflexible and unrealistically low.68 The true costs of printing are revealed in the accounts of Michael Wachsmann and his widow for the seven books that they contracted to Gregor Ritzsch in 1629-30. The rele- vant entries for Samuel Michael's Ander Theil newer Paduanen are transcribed in the appendix. The ledger shows that Wachsmann supplied the

paper for the edition at a cost of 30 fl. The value of the paper-4 fl. per bale-suggests that cheap material was used; in the 1623 edict, 4 fl. per bale was the prescribed price of brown printing-paper (braun Druck- pappier), the kind of inferior paper that printers were often criticized for

using.69 The sums for the purchase of paper do not entirely add up, because Wachsmann and his widow did not get the full 71/2 bales that their 30 fl. should have bought; instead the exact figure was 7.48 bales.

Perhaps they used some of the money to get better quality paper for presentation copies, as was their custom with other publications. As already mentioned, Wachsmann's accounts show that superior writing-paper (Schreibpappier) was used for ten to twenty copies of their Hoheliedt and Catechismus.

The printer's fee was 46 fl. 14 gr. 4 pf., paid to Ritzsch in two install- ments: of 17 fl. 10 gr. 4 pf., and 29 fl. 4 gr. (perhaps before and after the

job). The ledger specifies that the unit price was 61/4 fl. per bale. This rate was somewhat higher than the stipulation in the 1623 edict that

67. Currency denominations: 24 groschen = 1 thaler; 21 groschen = 1 gulden (abbreviated as fl. [florin]).

68. Albrecht Kirchhoff, "Die Privilegien fiber die Elementar-Schulbficher in Leipzig 1652 und sonstige Schddigungen nach dem Kriege," Archivfiir Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels 17 (1894): 92.

69. Hornschuch, 5.




books of a thousand copies should cost 5 fl. per bale. Nonetheless, Ritzsch charged Wachsmann 6 fl. per bale for printing books such as the Catechismus, so the partbook edition cost only slightly more than ordi-

nary texts. To put these figures into context, it is worth noting that printed music

in Italy did not cost any more than literary texts. As Iain Fenlon has shown, the retail prices of partbook editions were comparable to inex-

pensive editions of standard works of literature or classics.70 By contrast, in England where there was a small market and music printing was con- strained by royal monopolies, music seems to have cost between three and four times as much to print as normal books.71 The figures from

Leipzig indicate solely the printer's charges and exclude the markup added by publishers and retailers; but they suggest that economically, music was little different from other books.

PRINTED MUSIC IN CONTEXT

Much of the evidence presented in this article comes from isolated ex-

amples whose representativeness is hard to judge. It is always possible that books will subsequently be found that contradict the evidence presented here. Cumulatively, however, the examples do suggest that music

occupied an important niche in the Leipzig book trade. Rather than

being reserved for specialists, music was tackled by most printers and

produced at a price little different from ordinary texts. Such material details seem to reflect the prominent place of music in Lutheran life.

Indeed music bore such significance that small, provincial printers sometimes tried to include it in their books despite lacking the necessary equipment. In Altenburg, a town about twenty-five miles south of

Leipzig, the local printers do not seem to have possessed a full set of music type. Music by local composers was usually sent to Leipzig for

printing, as with Joseph Clauder's Psalmodia nova (1630). And yet the

Altenburg printers sometimes issued funeral sermons that contained

simple songs; in such cases, they printed a row of blank staves onto which the notes, clefs, and key signature were written by hand.72 We do not

70. lain Fenlon, Music, Print, and Culture in Early Sixteenth-Century Italy, The Panizzi Lectures, 1994 (London: British Library, 1995), 86.

71. Margaret Dowling, "The Printing of John Dowland's Second Booke of Songs or Ayres," The Library, 4th ser., 12 (1932): 365-80; also Philip Brett's preface to The Byrd Edition, vol. 7a (London: Stainer & Bell, 1997), xiii.

72. Examples include Christliche Gedechtnifi- und Ehren-Predigten: Leichenpredigt Magdalena von Biinau [geb. Gottesmann] (Altenburg, 1616), with the songs "Mag auch auff dieser weiten Welt" by Nikolaus Rothius and "Die Gerechten werden weggerafft" by Andreas Tellintzius; and Bekiimmerter Hertzen Gilldenes




know the circumstances that led to the inclusion of these half-printed, half-handwritten songs, but they may imply that the music was too valu- able to omit.

The significance of music is also evident in the way that it continued to be printed in Leipzig throughout the 1620s and 1630s, despite the obsta- cles posed by war and economic crises. Although the war seems to have dissuaded booksellers from underwriting partbook editions, it did not

stop Schein publishing his music himself. Nor did it thwart Burckhard Grossmann of Jena in publishing his anthology of motets, despite his bitter complaints about "Saul's spear." He persevered for four years to see his large book into print, waiting two years for the necessary funds and paper.73 Even in the 1630s, the decade when Leipzig was besieged four times and ravaged twice by the plague, partbook editions continued to be printed in the city. In the preface to one such collection, Samuel Michael's Psalmodia regia (1632), the composer spoke of the value of music as a consolatory and healing force in times of anguish. In the early 1640s, Ambrosius Profe managed to have four substantial editions of Italian music printed for him in Leipzig-including some of the first

pieces by Monteverdi to be issued in Germany--despite the continuing military operations in the town.74 The typographic quality of printed music from the war years could be low, with cheap paper, crude type, and numerous errors. But the persistence of music printing even in ad- verse circumstances testifies to the importance of music in Lutheran life, an importance also reflected in music's pervasive place in the book trade.

Trost-Biichlein: Leichenpredigt Wolfgang Albrecht von der Gabelentz (Altenburg, 1667), with the song "Wie nach groBer Arbeit rastet" by the deceased. Some surviving copies lack the handwritten notes, such as the exemplar of the funeral sermon for Maria Magdalena von Biinau in the Herzog-August-Bibliothek (Stolberg 6708): Katalog der fiirstlich Stolbert-Stolberg'schen Leichenpredigten-Sammlung, ed. Werner Konstantin von Arnswaldt, 4 vols. in 5 (Leipzig: Degener, 1927-35), 1:304. See also Wolfgang Reich, "Die deutschen gedruckten Leichenpredigten des 17. Jahrhunderts als musikalische Quelle" (Ph.D. diss., Universitat Leipzig, 1963), 17-18.

73. Grossmann, tenor partbook, sig. Aiiv. 74. Ambrosius Profe, ed., Geistlicher Concerten und Harmonien, v. 1-2 (Leipzig, 1641), v. 3 (Leipzig,

1642), v. 4 (Leipzig, 1646).




APPENDIX

Michael Wachsmann and Heirs: transactions concerning Samuel Michael's Ander Theil newer Paduanen (1630), from Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Richterstube Teil 1, Nr. 1269 (discussed at length in Braun, Samuel Michael, 24-32)

p. 10 Schulden

So bey des verstorbenen sehligen Lebzeitten gemacht, undt wie

folget von der wittiben be- zahlet

Samuel Michael an 32 Thl = 36 [fl.] 12 [gr.] - [pf.]

[Debts incurred by the deceased during his life and paid as follows by the widow: To Samuel Michael, 32 thalers i.e. 36 fl. 12 gr.] This payment was

probably a lump-sum for the manuscript of Michael's Paduanen, perhaps for both the 1627 and 1630 volumes. See Braun, Samuel Michael, 25.

p. 16 Gregor Ritzsch hat H. [errn] Samuell

Michaels paduanen andern theil

auffgeleget. in 4o. 361/2 Bogen, von Balln 61/4 fl. thut druckerlohn 46 fl. 14 gr. 4 &.

Darzue 7 Balln pappier, 4 RieB 16 Buch, den Balln vor 4 fl. thut 30 [fl.] - [gr.] - [pf.]

Ist sein druckerlohn bezahlt mit 17 [fl.] 10 [gr.] 4 [pf.] biB auff 29 fl. 4 gr

[Gregor Ritzsch printed Herr Samuel Michael's Ander Theil newer Paduanen in quarto. 361/2 sheets, @ 61/4 fl. per bale, makes a printer's fee of 46 fl. 14 gr. 4 pf. For this [edition were required] 7 bales, 4 reams and 16 books of paper, @ 4 fl. per bale, makes 30 fl. The printer's fee has been paid with 17 fl. 10 gr. 4 pf., leaving 29 fl. 4 gr.]




TABLE 2: Postmortem inventory of bookseller Andreas Hoffmann (1600)

2 Harnisch Teutsche Lieder mitt [Otto Siegfried Harnisch, ?RISM A/It H 2030 drey stimmen or H 2032 or H 2034]

1 Lautenbuch Carlges fol. [Sixt Kargel, Lautenbuch (Strasbourg, 1586), RISM B/I/1* 158623]

1 Tabulaturbuch Zfircher [unidentifiable] 1 Neusiedlers Lautenbuch in fol. [perhaps Melchior Neusidler, Teiitsch Lauten-

buch (Strasbourg, 1574), RISM B/I/1* 157413]

1 Novum opus musicum, Vitebergae [Sixt Dietrich, Novum opus musicum tres tomos (Wittenberg, 1545), RISM A/I+ D 3018]

5 Lobwasser 4 vocum [numerous editions of Ambrosius Lobwasser's

psalter issued in German lands from 1570s] 4 Psalter Lobwassers mitt vier Stimmen [Ambrosius Lobwasser, Der Psalter defi

in leisten Deutsch Leipzigk K6niglichen Propheten Davids (Leipzig, 1594), RISM B/VIII/1t 159407]

1 Calvsij Melodiae Erfurt [Sethus Calvisius, Melopoeia sive melodiae (Erfurt, 1592), RISM B/VI/I?, 198]

11 Introductio Musicae in 40 [unidentifiable] 149 Lystenij Musica [Nikolaus Listenius, Musica. Numerous edi-

tions publ. until 1600] 92 Enchiridion practicae Musicae [Georg Rhau, Enchiridion utriusque musicae prac-

ticae. Numerous editions publ. in Wittenberg until 1553]

Einzeldrucke vor 1800, ed. Karlheinz Schlager et al., 14 vols., R6pertoire international des sources musicales, A/I (Kassel: Birenreiter, 1971-2003). t Das deutsche Kirchenlied: Verzeichnis der Drucke von den Anfaingen bis 1800, ed. Konrad Ameln, MarkusJenny, and Walther Lipphardt, 2 vols., R6pertoire international des sources musicales, B/VIII (Kassel: Bairenreiter, 1975-80). ? Ecrits imprime concernant la musique, ed. FranCois Lesure, 2 vols., R6pertoire international des sources musicales, B/VI (Munich: G. Henle, 1971). * Recueils imprim~s: XVIe-XVIIe sikcles, ed. FranCois Lesure, vol. 1: List chronologique, R6pertoire international des sources musicales, B/I/i (Munich: G. Henle, 1960).

7 73 7-11 7T78

&acae,

