bavarikon4U16th century music manuscripts from the Proske collection
The Proske music collection is a unique collection of sources on the history of 16th and 17th century music located in Bavaria. It is considered to be one of the most renowned collections of old musical holdings in Bavaria and Germany, after the one in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich.
In building up his collection of music, the canon Carl Proske (1794-1861) pursued the goal of establishing church music as an integral part of the liturgy based on Gregorian chant and ancient classical vocal polyphony. He is one of the most important initiators of the Palestrina Renaissance in Germany.
To carry out his intention, Proske acquired high-calibre music prints and manuscripts of predominantly vocal polyphonic compositions from 1829 onwards, initially from the former Reichsstädtisches Gymnasium Poeticum. He laid the foundation for his collection with them. He later undertook three research trips to Italy, during which he expanded his holdings through copies in libraries and archives and by purchasing originals. The collection’s sources contain numerous unique works represented only in Regensburg.
Among the sources presented are the "Pernner Codex" C 120, which is significant for research on Ludwig Senfl, the organ tablature C 119 with intervolutions of vocal movements and the six part books AR. 775-777, which are important for 16th century instrumentation practice. On the other hand, the musical history of the imperial city of Regensburg is represented by the so-called "Buchmayer Codex" written by the cantor Johannes Buchmayer (c. 1520-1591) in 1560. Equally significant is the five-part set of part books by the Regensburg citizen Wolfgang Küffer (died 1566). It offers an interesting testimony to humanistic-bourgeois music-making in the 16th century and at the same time contains iconographic and literary genealogical entries.
>> This collection is part of the holdings of the Bischöfliche Zentralbibliothek Regensburg (Episcopal Central Library Regensburg).