Exhibit Opening: From A (Athanasius) to Z (Zarlino): Changes in Printing Technologies and their Impact on Music Notation (12th-19th c.)

Exhibit will be on view from October 30, 2025 - end of semester

This exhibit brings together a selection of music materials from Tisch Library Special Collections, including scores and texts from the Frédéric Louis Ritter Collection. Items on display range from a handwritten illuminated manuscript with early neume notation to scientific music treatises to a Requiem Mass (aka Mass for the dead) - all representing changes in printing technology and music notation over several hundred years. The materials illustrate music printing practices in use in Europe from the early modern period through the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, including manuscripts written and decorated by hand, letterpress printing with woodblocks, and printing with engraved copper or metal plates.

Exhibit curated by Patrick Quinn and Anna Kijas with support from Elettra Connolly and Christopher Barbour. Woodblock plates designed and created on laser cutter by Miles Donovan.