An Early-Seventeenth-Century Collection of Sacred Vocal Music and Its Augsburg Connections

Despite extensive study of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, relatively little is known about the repertories of specific churches of the time, and about how their music was acquired and used. One institution about which valuable information has emerged in recent years is the Lutheran Church of St. Anna in Augsburg. In particular, understanding of the church's musical life was augmented with my discovery of some printed music editions purchased in June 1618 by Adam Gumpelzhaimer (1559-1625), the music director of St. Anna's church and school for forty-four years. ¹ Gumpelzhaimer purchased the materials for St. Anna and itemized them, together with their prices, in Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek, Autogr. 54. In view of limited information about the day-to-day planning of St. Anna's collection, the 1618 document provided new evidence about how Gumpelzhaimer organized its purchases. Additional insight was gained into his management and use of the collection as well as his musical interests as a result of uncovering most of the actual printed editions. Further information about these matters can now be reported in view of my discovery of an inventory with a larger number of early music printed editions than those cited in the 1618 document. Rather then being located in Augsburg, the new inventory is found in the Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz. This new document, which is the focus of the present article, adds substantially to our knowledge of Gumpelzhaimer's collecting activities for St. Anna and his contribution to its musical life.

Before studying the document and its music, it may be useful to place the inventory into perspective by reviewing salient details about Gumpelzhaimer and other major collectors in Augsburg. In recognition of his birth in Trostberg in Upper Bavaria, Gumpelzhaimer stylized his name as "Adamus Gumpelzhaimerus Trostbergensis [or 'Trosberga'] Boius [or 'Bavarus']." His musical training was undertaken at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Ulrich and St. Afra in Augsburg, where one of his teachers was Jodocus Entzenmüller. In 1581 Gumpelzhaimer was appointed cantor and preceptor at the Lutheran Church and School of St. Anna, Augsburg, positions he held until his death in 1625. He collected a large quantity of music by his contemporaries, for both himself and St. Anna, as well as copying a considerable number of their works, something that is well illustrated in his score-books located in Berlin and Cracow. ² Toward the end of his life he sold many of his music manuscripts and printed editions to St. Anna, and documented them in a catalog of its music holdings; ³ sadly, many items from his library are now lost. ⁴ Perhaps Gumpelzhaimer's most famous publication was his Compendium musicae ... (Augsburg: Valentin Schönig, 1591; RISM A/I, G 5116), ⁵ which deals with the rudiments of music and reflects the methods he used in the instruction of students at St. Anna. The book, which underwent thirteen editions between 1591 and 1681, provides both German and Latin versions of its text as well as including many music examples by various composers, himself included. He was a major contributor to Augsburg's musical life and published a large quantity of sacred vocal music. ⁶

Apart from its churches, Augsburg's most prominent music collectors during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a group of successful entrepreneurs. These included Hans Heinrich Herwart (1520-1583), most of whose collection was purchased in 1585 and 1594 by Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria and is now found in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich; ⁷ Johann Jakob Fugger (1516-1575), whose collection passed into the hands of his patron, Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, and is now located in the same library; ⁸ three other members of the Fugger family, Raimund (1528-1569), his brother Georg (1518-1569), and the latter's son, Philipp Eduard (1546-1618), whose collections eventually...