Inventarium Librorum Musicae: New Documentary Contribution on the Musical Archives of the Cathedral of Cuenca (17th and 18th centuries)

Abstract

Considering the recovery and study of descriptive documents as a fundamental element of historic and historiographic reconstruction and review of musical practice in general, and cathedral music in particular, is a topic whose value should be increased as a critical manoeuvre. With that purpose, in the present article, transcribed documentation contributes essential data for a qualitative review on the first polyphonic batches —of which we have evidence— written in the Cathedral of Cuenca. It is our understanding that the content of the present inventories transcends simple qualification of scores and certifies that the quality of Cuenca’s music chapel, since the beginning of the 17th century, was comparable to that of other Hispanic chapels of greater notoriety.