Preliminary thoughts on the dynamics of music printing in the Iberian Peninsula during the sixteenth century

Abstract

Music printing in the Iberian Peninsula has been little studied and rarely has this specialized aspect of book production been considered in the broader context of more general trends in printing there during the sixteenth century. Music historiography has tended to assume that music printing failed to flourish because of poor local demand. However, more recent evidence, including analysis of book inventories, suggests that there was a thriving market, based on both international and local distribution, but that the printing of music books was affected by many of the factors that beset printing in general, including the expense of importing high quality paper, limited availability of specialized fonts and the socio-economic vicissitudes of individual printers. This essay explores the dynamics of the production of and market for music books through analysis of three major cities –Seville, Barcelona and Madrid– which appeared to offer the right conditions but which ultimately produced only a limited number of editions.