Paper and Copyists in Viennese Opera Scores

Project Description

Hundreds of works by Haydn, Gluck, and other Viennese composers are known solely from contemporary copies. These sources, written by professional copyists, normally remained undated; determining the chronological position of the works and the significance of the source is difficult. As professional copyists changed papers relatively often, a survey of datable paper allows for dating manuscripts written by Viennese copyists. Facing this challenge, the projects “Cultural Transfer of Music in Vienna, 1755–80" (CTMV), "Paper and Copyists in Viennese Opera Scores, 1760–70” (P&C1) and “Paper and Copyists in Viennese Opera Scores, 1725-59” (P&C2) explore more than 350 datable opera scores from the Habsburg collections, identifying the professional copyists (by handwriting and, if possible, by name) as well as the paper they used. Rather than single elements, the combination of elements is the most valuable clue to dating. The project exhibits various types of combinations: those of copyists working together; of paper types used simultaneously; and copyists using specific types of paper.

Four main innovative aspects stick out:

(1) Accuracy: Digital photographs of watermarks and the features of copyists promise a greater precision of reproduction than can be achieved with traditional drawings by hand. For the first time in musicology this project uses transmitted light photographs and image subtraction on a grand scale––an accurate, simple and inexpensive method of recording watermarks.

(2) Accessibility: Digital processing allows a systematic search for watermarks/paper, for manuscripts and their structure, and for copyist handwriting. The present database makes the data available to a broad number of scholars in the fields of musicology and paper studies and connects it to the well-known databases of RISM and “The Memory of Paper” (Bernstein Project). The Copyist Identifier allows locating a copyist by choosing from a set of musical symbols (like keys, note-heads, rests, time signatures, etc.).

(3) Completeness: Due to the close temporal sequence of the sources, the catalogs of paper and musical handwriting presumably cover large parts of all Viennese music manuscripts written in decades of rich manuscript production. The period from 1725 to 1775 is characterized by multiple performances, mostly of Italian opera, in Vienna and by the fact that the Viennese court collected scores of these works. Therefore, this period is a perfect field for such an examination.

(4) Digital Visualization and Automated Pattern Recognition: The application of artificial intelligence opens new horizons for music philology. Transferring methods now used to identify writers to 18th-century music manuscripts helps to identify copyists more quickly, to statistically survey variances in writing style, and to better trace how the handwriting of individual copyists developed.

CTMV: Scores from 1771 to 1774

In the first stage of the research project, between 2014 and 2019, about 30 opera scores supposed to be written in Vienna by professional copyists between 1771 and 1774 and housed in the music collection of the Austrian National Library were examined systematically.
(For detailed information, click here:) From this period, twenty-seven opera scores are included in the database, as well as two scores that turned out to be from a later period (Mus.Hs. KT 157, Salieri, La Fiera di Venezia; Mus.Hs. 17831, Sacchini, L’Amore Soldato) and two scores that stem from the period but include later additions (Mus.Hs. 17838, Salieri, La Fiera di Venezia; Mus.Hs. 17840, Salieri, La Locandiera). These scores were written by fifty-eight copyists who used forty-four types of paper, documented in over 2,500 images. The paper codes range from P1 to P56. Thirty-seven paper types were used in the period between 1771 and 1774. Further, the database comprises seven paper types that were used in a later period, mostly in the 1780ies, including P14, P17, P27, P29, P45, P46, and P47. Paper types where only a few folios could be identified, meaning that we were not able to reconstruct a whole sheet, were not included in the database. These are P4, P6, P13, P15, P16, P18, P24, P28, P30, P32, P34, and P36.

P&C1: Scores from 1760 to 1770

The second stage of the research project (2021–2025) covered the period from 1760 to 1770, including another 137 opera scores providing further information about music copyists in Vienna, their mode of operation and the distribution of their products. Additionally, we published the special issue “Paper and Copyists in Viennese Opera Scores” in Musicologica Austriaca 2026, including studies on paper production and paper trade, on the specifics of music copying in Vienna, the collaboration of copyists and a case study on Salieri’s La locandiera and its versions.

P&C2: Scores from 1725 to 1759

The present stage of the project explores nearly 190 datable opera scores from the Habsburg collections. The use of Artificial Intelligence broadens the scope of our central objectives: (1) to identify the professional copyists; (2) to apply computer vision and machine learning techniques to distinguish them; and (3) to identify the paper they used. In Vienna the period from 1725 to 1759 saw performances of mostly Italian, but also French opera.

Please find the raw material for the project at the mdw repository:
Photos unedited_Paper
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21939/deb7-gn16
Photos unedited_Covers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21939/grqj-8s58
Photos edited_Paper
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21939/txvj-em71
Tables and texts_For public use
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21939/sc0d-c072

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21939/keobd9
License: CCBY-SA
Last edited: 27.04.2026
How to cite:
Paper and Copyists in Viennese Opera Scores / About / Project, last edited 27.04.2026,
https://doi.org/10.21939/keobd9, retrieved