Der Umlauf der spanischen Handschriften aus dem Antiquariat Leo Liepmannssohns in Paris und Berlin

Abstract

One of the antique libraries most representative of the second half of the 19^th century was that of Leo Liepmannssohn, with branches in Paris and Berlin. Its importance grew over time due to its auctions of many manuscripts by J. S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and other composers, a fact that explains how the author came across it during his investigation into the referred manuscripts. The object of this investigation is a collection of more than 300 folders that can be consulted in the Music Department in the Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin. The folders contain the annual catalogues from the antique library of Liepmannssohn (Berlin) comprising the years 1866 to 1923. Each catalogue consists of a list of all the sales from the corresponding year in alphabetical order and contains, besides manuscripts, literature, musical treatises and the portraits of several composers. There are many Spanish manuscripts included in these catalogues whose distribution was so important that in 1900 Liepmannssohn published an exclusive catalogue for Spanish and Portuguese manuscripts, 291 of which the librarian had sold during that year. During the celebration of those auctions many documents, musical treatises and manuscripts, both known and unknown, were brought to light. The investigation earned out contributes to our knowledge about the works of different Spanish composers from the 16^th to the 19^th centuries and their distribution abroad, especially in Berlin.