MARCMUS – Music Paper and Handwriting Studies in Portugal (18th and 19th Centuries): The Case Study of the Collection of the Count of Redondo

Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal

Since the late 1950s, when Alfred DÜRR (1957) thoroughly revised the dating of Bach’s cantatas through a detailed comparison of watermarks, source criticism has all but revolutionised the way in which scholars examine music scores. Other similar studies worth mentioning, greatly contributed to the chronology of both Mozart and Beethoven’s works (TYSON, 1975 and 1987, JOHNSON et al, 1985). Matters of authorship and provenance also markedly benefit from the study of paper: “Even an imprecise reproduction of a watermark may lead the researcher to source materials sufficiently similar to furnish vital clues for further research” (LARUE, 1998). If the watermark study is complemented by stave ruling dimensions and the identification of handwriting, the precision – and therefore the usefulness – of the findings will be greatly enhanced. On a broader scale, the music-paper maker and the relationship with its final user – the composer or the copyist – bring to the fore relevant considerations of cultural and commercial exchanges, which will also be valuable to the music historian.