About this project

Before starting with this database, I had indices of only a few sources and a whole series of concordances lying scattered around. Then Markus Lutz sent me his compilation of Weiss' works with concordances, with the request to check the concordances, and the spark was generated to put some system in the information I had lying around, using Markus' info as the starting point, amplifying the project to other non-Weiss sources. First of all, I chose a source-based setup, and for each source in my possession I listed the contents, along with the key in which the pieces were given. Where present, the included page numbering was followed, while for others and ad-hoc numbering was applied. The concordances not already supplied by Markus were taken
a) from the listings contained in the CLF editions for V.Gaultier, Mesangeau and Dufault,
b) from annotations obtained from F.-P. Goy on mss I got from him by exchange,
c) where applicable, the indications from François-Pierre Goy & Andreas Schlegel's new website Accords nouveaux have been gratefully used, together with available new concordances. The Accords Nouveaux are indicated by the type of tuning as numbered by François-Pierre Goy, just behind the key (blue in brackets), and each piece has also a PAN number (pièces en accords nouveaux) below the key. For their meaning the reader is referred to the website Accords nouveaux.
d) from the web-based catalogue by Meyer (Univ de Strassbourg)
e) from lists of Tim Crawford, especially of Mss Danby, Wn396, GoëssI and GoëssII,
f) my own discoveries, with additional ones surfacing just during setting up this database.

Using the indexes of Meyer's online catalogue that gives only a numbering of the pieces, i.e without the consultation of the four printed volumes, proved to be particularly arduous in more than one instance, especially with manuscripts containing many anonymous entries, due to the fact that in the web-based version the entries are only numbered sequentially without any reference to page number. An example is D-LEmII.6.24. Meyer's sequential entries are compared with the contents list to find the corresponding pieces. In this database, Meyer's number is reported among the concordances between parentheses (e.g. #214). In many cases, (small) jumps in the numbering were encountered.

Since the database was meant initially as a private document, it is possible that sources are still named differently (e.g. . 'Reynaud' and 'F-Aix' had been used for the same manuscript for a long time). Also some of the sources names were abbreviated ad-hoc, for ease of use. The private use is also reflected in the fact that only, with some exceptions, works for solo lute were considered. At the moment this database was made available on the web, data are presented for over 530 sources, where for some the list may be incomplete while taken from another source.

These 'inconsistences' are all part of future work, requiring listing the sources with their canonical references systematically, while works for chamber music with lute may be added later on. We appreciate every constructive help!

About myself

I am a Dutchman living and working since 1986 in Italy, in the field of Metrology (maintenance of the national units of measurements such as the Meter and the Kilogram). I learned to play the baroque-lute on age 32-33 in The Netherlands, with private lessons from Margriet Verzijl-Harperink. While still there, I got to know several of the (professional) Dutch lute players, who kindly provided me with a copy of my first sources. These were then extended by prints from microfilms that somebody still had lying around. After that my source library increased slowly but steadily by exchange with others, in Europe and outside. During the first years in Italy, I had the opportunity to take some occasional lessons with Jakob Lindberg, but these stopped when he transferred first to London and then to his home country Sweden.

Peter Steur

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