Eighteenth-Century Music in Swedish Libraries. A Database Catalogue

In 2018, the vice-chancellor of Uppsala University approved funds for digitizing about fifty eighteenth-century music manuscripts held in the Uppsala University Library. This funding financed a pilot study during 2019, preparing for the current database design.

The database was later developed within an infrastructure project ”Music at Court and University During Sweden’s Age of Liberty (1718–1772): a digitization and database project”, financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond during the years 2020–2024. The research staff included Lars Berglund (project manager), Maria Schildt, and Jonas Lundblad. The project’s aim was to digitize manuscript music from Sweden’s Age of Liberty (1718–72) and create a research database containing detailed information needed for future research on the material.

The manuscripts are held by the university libraries in Uppsala and Lund, and by the Musik- och teaterbiblioteket, Stockholm. The digital images are made accessible through the libraries’ common platform for digitized cultural heritage (ALVIN). The research database includes relevant information of the musical manuscripts, and offers researchers a resource for future studies on the eighteenth-century collections included in the project. The database is intended as an open-ended, dynamic, resource, where new data will be added as they become available.