RISM (RĂ©pertoire International des Sources Musicales) is an international collaborative programme which aims to document all pre-1850 musical sources surviving in libraries and archives worldwide. These sources include printed and manuscript music, writings on music and libretti.

Through its online and printed publications, RISM brings together the results of research and cataloguing in more than 30 countries, including the UK. The work to document musical sources worldwide is still ongoing. In the UK, work is co-ordinated by the RISM (UK) Trust.

Much of data gathered worldwide is freely available online. There are two interfaces through which you can search for printed and manuscript music held in libraries across the world, including libraries in the UK. These are the international RISM Catalog of Musical Sources and the newer RISM Online platform. (The data on the musical sources is the same in both, but the two platforms provide different search functionality.)

If you are interested specifically in musical sources preserved in British libraries and archives, you can search just that subset of data via RISM Online here. Musical sources held in Northern Ireland are now within the scope of the RISM Ireland committee and are listed under Ireland in RISM Online.

'Lessons for the fflute Alone', in the hand of Thomas Britton (British Library Add MS 22098 [f. 12v]
‘Lessons for the fflute Alone’, in the hand of Thomas Britton (British Library Add MS 22098, f. 12v). Image Public Domain.

Note on coverage of material held in British libraries

The online RISM catalogues include all catalogue records for pre-1800 manuscript music in British libraries that have been created up till now. Cataloguing of these collections is not yet complete, however.

The catalogues also contain data on most single-composer pre-1800 printed editions identified to date in British libraries and archives. However, they do not generally include descriptions of individual works in printed anthologies. See History of RISM in the UK for information on anthologies catalogued for the Early Music Online project.