Bibliographical inventory to the early music in the Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois

G. K. Hall & Co., Boston, first edition, 1977. Cloth, folio, 36 cm,. xvii, 587 pp, the catalogue reproducing 21 catalogue cards per page,. A catalogue reproducing the library catalogue cards From the introduction - "The Newberry Library has what is considered to be one of the most important music collections in the United States, particularly rich in the fields of Renaissance music, early theory, and Americana. As a privately endowed research library with strong bibliophilic interests, it has naturally built its collections to serve historical scholarship. Indicative of this strength is the fact that nearly 10 per cent of its cataloged music collection predates 1861. The post-1860 materials in the Library make up a valuable working reference collection, besides containing a number of valuable and important items; but it is clearly the early material which makes the Library an outstanding one for the music scholar. Thus the present volume - the first extensive published catalog devoted to the Library's music collection - has been assembled in order to make this early material better known… The scope of the collection has come to be defined as covering western European music from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century, and American music from the beginnings into the early twentieth century. Reflecting the reference function of the Library in its early days, and through the efforts of two of Chicago's leading music critics, George P. Upton and Felix Borowski, the collection was built mostly with a view to providing great strength in secondary materials. Valuable items by no means were avoided, however. ..The music collection today numbers close to 200,000 items, of which about 45,000 are books about music. The remainder consists of scores and performance editions, of which perhaps 100,000 items are uncataloged sheet music. .. Covers faded, top edge a little marked, otherwise Very Good.