Music Manuscripts Missing from the Staats- Und UniversitäTsbibliothek, Hamburg
A vast quantity of rare music books and manuscripts were lost during the Second World War, and while a substantial number has been rediscovered, many items remain untraced. In some cases the only information we have about such losses is found in early music catalogues. One library with invaluable information of this kind is the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg (in 1919 the library's name was changed from ‘Stadtbibliothek’ to ‘Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek’, and in 1983 it acquired its present name ‘Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky‘). The full extent of the Hamburg Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek's music losses has yet to be revealed in print, and it is in respect of a small component of these losses, namely, its music manuscripts, that I am concerned here.