Music Books for an ‘iglesia principal y calificada’: the 1657 Inventory of Jaén Cathedral in Context

Abstract

Our understanding of sacred musical culture in the Iberian Peninsula during the early modern period has taken a significant step forward in recent decades. One of the sources that has revolutionized our knowledge are inventories of music libraries, a documentary typology known about for some time, yet whose crucial implications have still to be explored sufficiently. Despite the inherent limitations of inventories, various studies have shown their enormous potential, especially as regards Spain, where, as fate would have it, whole libraries have disappeared. Inventories provide a snapshot of the repertory available at a given time and place, regardless of whether or not it was performed; they also, together with other types of documentary evidence, shed light on important information regarding both local production and the processes of the book trade, circulation and integration of the foreign repertory. In a broader sense, they reveal other details such as the degree of modernity or the attractiveness of certain institutions. This essay illustrates these aspects using a details inventory of music books held at Jaén Cathedral and dating from 1657. I will present a transcription, commentary and identification of its contents, and attempt to establish its importance in the context of other contemporary inventories in order to further our knowledge of music libraries during the seventeenth century, which are generally less well known than those of the sixteenth century.