Johann Georg Werdenstein (1542-1608): A Major Collector of Early Music Prints (review)

For a professor based in Australia, Richard Charteris has for decades been an unusually indefatigable investigator of European and American libraries in the course of his researches, which have been pursued mainly, though not exclusively, in the field of Renaissance and early Baroque music. For his latest publication, he has turned to the sixteenth-century bibliophile Johann Georg von Werdenstein, much of whose collection still survives at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Werdenstein (1542-1608) came of an aristocratic family and entered the Catholic Church, becoming a canon of Augsburg Cathedral in 1563, and adding a further canonry at Eichstatt in 1567. Possessing both intellectual ability and financial means, he built up one of the largest private libraries of the time, running into tens of thousands of volumes, and including over 450 music editions. In 1592 Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria persuaded him to sell 9,000 volumes, including the music, and they entered the Hofbibliothek, and hence today form part of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek's collection. The duke had been steadily building up his own library, partly through acquisition of other collections, including that of Johann Heinrich Herwart, which had a similar number of music items. These two music collections together form a principal ingredient of the present library's magnificent array of sixteenth-century music prints.

Werdenstein collected not only new publications but also editions from the first half of the sixteenth century, including thirteen Petrucci prints. Italian and German editions dominate, followed by thirty-six from the Low Countries. There are few from Paris, and none (unsurprisingly) from London. Two-thirds of the items are of secular vocal music; the sacred music includes both Catholic and Lutheran sources, and there is a small group of instrumental works, consisting of consort dances and lute intabulations. The great majority of the part-book sets are fortunately still complete, and no fewer than eighty-two items are unica, either wholly or in part.

Werdenstein's library was not maintained as a separate collection, but absorbed into the rest of the Hofbibliothek. Fortunately the inventory prepared at the time of the 1592 acquisition has been preserved, and this has formed the basis of Charteris's reconstruction of Werdenstein's music collection. The main part of the present volume consists of a transcription of the 1592 list, suitably annotated with precise identification of the work and its current status and location where known. For not everything listed in the inventory is now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Some thirty-six prints are untraceable, including some would-be unica. A check in the mid-nineteenth century revealed a number of duplicates, both within the Werdenstein volumes themselves and with items from the Herwart collection; many duplicates were disposed of, in part through exchange with other libraries. Charteris has been assiduous in tracking down ex-Werdenstein duplicates, many of which can now be found in libraries in Berlin, Kraków, and London.

Werdenstein had many of his music items bound, and his ownership is often readily identifiable by the presence of his bookplate, coat-of-arms, or autograph inscription. There were, however, also many unbound prints at the time of the 1592 sale. These tended to lack signs of ownership and were later bound, but often combined with Herwart items, so that, particularly in the case of duplicates, it is now not always possible to determine from which library the copies originated. Again Charteris has elucidated the situation in his final chapter, though here his annotations are often rather repetitive, and some more condensed form of presentation might have been considered.

The introductory chapters provide clear background on Werdenstein himself and the fate of his collection through the ensuing centuries. We are, however, left to conclude that we know relatively little of his life, particularly as regards his engagement with his music volumes. He was obviously interested enough in...