List of RISM abbreviations explained

The RISM library abbreviations, or sigla, are used for identifying locations of musical manuscripts. The special volume RISM-Bibliothekssigel. Gesamtverzeichnis (RISM Library Sigla. Complete Index), which appeared in 1999, has been available in a regularly updated version on the RISM website since 2006 and in a searchable database online since 2011.^[1]

The complete list is very long (see pdf). Only a selection of major source locations are listed here:

• F-Pn Bibliothèque nationale de France
• GB-Lbl British Library
• GB-Ob Bodleian Library
  • I-FEca

    it:Curia Arcivescovile di Ferrara e Comacchio, Archivio

    I-MOas
• I-MOe
• E-Mn
• E-Bbc

External links

• Online Directory of RISM Library Sigla

Notes and References

1. RISM Zentralredaktion, announcement 29 November 2011 and Birgit Grün, "RISM Library Sigla," trans. Keith Harris, Forum Musikbibliothek 27 (2006/4), p. 331ff. Background information about the sigla